Beyond Opinion

More on Michael Jackson

2009-06-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

Let's play this game. If you are a writer or a composer or even a mathematician proving theorems, which one of your own works is yourself personified in your medium (a poem, novel, symphony, rhythm and blues song, or theorem)? I happen to be the mathematician, and my main theorem is one about group cohomology rings, which says that if you generalize it to groups acting on a set (sort of a relative group construction), the products all go to zero. In other words, if everything is relative, everything vanishes.

Anyway, let's try this game on Michael Jackson. What has Michael Jackson done, and what was his life like? After thinking about this I conclude that the work of Michael Jackson that most personifies himself is Thriller. He became a hit in his child and young adult years. But since then he has not done much of anything but go around the country celebrating his own worthiness and pride. He apparently got into molestation trouble with some of his children, and despite having a ridiculously huge mansion, spent himself into bankruptcy, while literally drugging himself to death. Some of the words of Thriller may pertain here. "The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand". Sooner or later his troubles are going to catch up with him. "Grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom". Talk about all of his troubles. Yes, I say that if Michael Jackson were a Michael Jackson hit song, he would be Thriller.

And isn't it like that with our entire society as well? Isn't the Time of Peak Oil the midnight hour that is close at hand? Richard Heinberg wrote a book called Peak Everything. In it Mr. Heinberg maintains that we are not only reaching the peak or the end of our oil supply, but also of water, gold, rare earth elements, natural gas, ice in the Arctic, and many other essential resources of our society. All of these are coming at us fast, like a horde of huge insects. And as the song goes, "Grizzly ghouls from every tomb Are closing in to seal your doom."

James Howard Kunstler gave an excellent description of Michael Jackson's life and what it says about ourselves today (2009 June 29) in an essay entitled "The Man in the Mirror" and you can find it here. Read it - it is interesting stuff. In the meantime, can you resist the evil of the Thriller? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Overreaction to Michael Jackson's Death Supports Scoundrels

2009-06-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Michael Jackson died of a heart problem at age 50. Now I like some of Jackson's (and his sister Janet's) music, but the media and Michael Jackson fans really overreacted big. In so doing, they neglected other people and events and supported scoundrels such as Iran's Ayatollah Khameini, President(?) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

When the story broke of his death, the networks ran steamroller over everything else, including local news and weather and other shows. The news caused them to largely ignore the death of actress Farrah Faucett. Her family and friends are going to be incensed about this. It has increased some Internet traffic by five fold, causing Twitter's infamous "Fail Whale" to appear many more times than it should.

The fact that the media was harping on Michael Jackson meant they were not properly reporting the violence in Iran. These people were fighting for their freedom; all that Michael Jackson provided was some catchy and scary music. The jam of traffic on Twitter means that Iran's dissidents can't communicate with the outside world and tell us what is going on in Iran. It's not enough that the Iranian government is trying to block it; at least that is what we would expect of such a totalitarian entity. Now we have Michael Jackson's fans effectively blocking Internet access almost as much as the Iranian government. With friends like Michael Jackson's ardorists, who needs enemies?

The Michael Jackson hype also means that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford will get away with his affair. Normally a person like Sanford would be driven into the ground by media hype, enough so that the South Carolina legislature is forced to impeach and remove him. But that is not happening now because the media hypiots are going after Michael Jackson instead. So Sanford's little South America episode is now largely forgotten. The energy to get rid of him will now dissipate, and for that reason I now predict that he will complete his term as South Carolina's governor.

I have news for you. The death of Michael Jackson does not rank the same as the 9/11 attacks, Kennedy's assassination, or even Elvis Presley's death. All of you media hypiots and rabid fans need to know that your hyping of Michael Jackson's death has hurt a lot of people who were interested in other events or who just simply wanted to use Twitter and has helped several malevolent causes. Or maybe what he meant by "The funk of 40,000 years" was Twitter failures, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Ayatollah and the entire Republican Guard, the media, and politicians having extramarital affairs on taxpayer money.

It's 10 calls for Terry McAuliffe now

2009-06-09T13:20:00.001-07:00

It's election day, but that apparently does not bother the Terry McAuliffe camp. Maybe he wants me to vote for Republican Bob McDonnell in the fall. He threw three more calls on my phone, all computer calls, setting a new record of 10 calls during the course of the campaign.

One of these was from Congressman Bobby Scott. So not only do I not want Mr. McAuliffe to be nominated by the Democrats, but I also want Mr. Scott defeated in the next election. I find that a disappointment, since he was one of only THREE congressmen to vote against a bill in 2002 condemning the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because they had the audacity to rule against "God" being said or sung in the schools.

Creigh Deeds apparently is a friend of the National Rifle Association. So therefore I voted for Brian Moran, and I hope he gets nominated. He alone of the three did not send any computer calls to my phone.

Excessive Telephone Calls in Virginia Gubernatorial Primary

2009-06-08T16:54:00.001-07:00

It seems that Virginia's politicians don't get the message that computer calls and excessive telephone calls do not earn them votes. That's the case with Virginia's gubernatorial primary on 2009 June 9. Republican Bob McDonnell is unopposed so there is no Republican primary. There are three candidates for the Democrat's race, namely Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran, and Creigh Deeds. Here is the score for telephone calls for the candidates:

Terry McAuliffe, 3 voice calls and 4 computer calls
Creigh Deeds, 1 computer call
Brian Moran, none.

The McAuliffe camp does not evidently see fit to leave our phones alone, it seems. They have made 4 computer calls, which are the absolute worst of all. You can't respond to them, and they seem to go on and on. Voice calls are better because you can talk with the campaign's representative. But three of them is too much, especially in two days. I consider that harassment. For that reason, there is absolutely no chance I will vote for Terry McAuliffe, no matter what his other credentials are.

I thought Creigh Deeds would be my choice, until he threw a computer call at me. But I was reticent to vote for the third candidate Brian Moran, because he wanted to ban ads solely on the basis of the mention of sex in them (Viagra commercials). I figure that if you are going to ban ads, ban all ads, not just Viagra ones.

That reticence vanished when I found out that Brian Moran wasn't the one with the ad ban. That was Jim Moran, a member of Virginia's Congress and the brother of Brian. It's a bit of confusion which did not help things as much. I was leaning towards Deeds, but I will now probably vote for Brian Moran, and I urge voters to do so, and in fact I urge voters not to vote for Terry McAuliffe, unless you want to put telephone harassment into standard operating procedure of the Governor's office.

Virginia Power Misstatement

2009-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today I got my electric bill. Nothing too unusual, but it came with a newsletter called the "Customer Connection". The first story is entitled "Reliability". It says "we work hard to maintain and improve reliability". Then it goes on to say that its efforts have paid off, saying that a typical Dominion Virginia Power customer had power more than 99.9 percent of the time.

Let's see about that this past year. A storm marched forth with a sharp squall line on March 4 last year and cut the power for 8 hours. On May 12, on a windy day, a tree fell on a nearby power line, causing a 12-hour power outage. In mid-July, a severe storm with hail knocked power off for about an hour. On August 17, a hard-to-discern power outage occurred for 1/2 hour. And later that month, a car hit a utility pole that was well within the property, causing a 4 hour power outage. The total is 25.5 hours. The year had 8784 (not 8760 because it was a leap year) hours, so the power was on (8784-25.5)/8784 = 99.7% of the time. That is not over 99.9%. Where did you get your data from, Dominion? Did you single out my home somehow?

Further, even 99.9% is unacceptable. It should be 99.99%. Hours of down time for whatever reason is always unacceptable. I do not consider their power reliable unless they are up 99.99% of the time, with at most 52 minutes of power outage time per year. To me the main problem is all these aerial cables that are subject to tree strikes. I now fear any time the wind goes over 25 mph.

It's OK to set their standards, but Virginia Power should refrain from statements like "power was up over 99.9% of the time".

Appointmentosis?

2009-02-03T18:09:00.000-08:00

Has Barack Obama come down with a case of appointmentosis? So many of his appointments have things wrong with them, including taking payments and not paying taxes, that one wonders what's wrong with him. The answer is nothing.

Look, people. We have a CRISIS! Financial institutions are hurting because they have to write off so many bad mortgages. The stock markets plummet. Layoff after layoff occurs in the corporate world, and companies, such as Circuit City, fail. Further, there is peak oil on the horizon which threatens to make things a lot worse. And we are saying something is wrong because some of his appointments haven't turned out right. OK, there are some scoundrels out there like the guy who Madoff with our money. But are we going to get hung up on appointments because these people did not pay all their taxes? Where's the attitude of Yes We Can? We can't if we get hornswoggled around the propriety of an appointment where the appointee did not pay a mere $900 in taxes. Most of us lost far more in the markets. Besides, these taxes are hornswoggling us. The IRS calls on us to make estimated payments or else pay penalty fees. But how can we do that when we can't predict how much income we have? Depending on whether the economy improves or degrades, there could be a huge difference in income and hence taxes. Further, some of the most determining aspects of our taxes such as forms K-1 are the ones for which we get the information so late that we may have to file for an extension. I don't want any extension if I am due a refund!

We need to get over this appointmentosis and select and ratify some talented people, so we can get going with solving these Fourth Turning crises. Just do it. Appoint these people. They are paying back their taxes. We got work ahead of us. Let's get going.

The Gregg appointment

2009-02-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

I see that Barack Obama has appointed Rep. Repr. Judd Gregg from New Hampshire to be his Commerce Secretary. This seems like an ideal appointment. It gets a Republican in his cabinet, so verifying that his appeal to the country is bipartisan. Further, by removing a Republican from the Senate in a state where the governor is a Democrat (John Lynch), it could turn a Republican seat into a Democratic one, and give the Democrats a cloture-proof Senate, at least for a little while (provided Al Franken gets to occupy the seat from Minnesota).

But Gregg himself threw a monkeywrench into this. He said that he will turn down the appointment if it favors Democrats in the Senate. If this happens, can Obama turn to someone else? Who are the Republican senators who come from states with Democratic governors? Here is the list of those states where such exist:

Wyoming 2
Kansas 2
Oklahoma 2
Iowa
Missouri
Kentucky 2
Tennessee 2
Ohio
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Maine 2

So there are 17 other possible choices. I would choose the most Democratic state (the "bluest" state) among these, and so would pick Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

A Bad Economy is Good!

2009-02-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

It had to happen sooner or later. Soaring gasoline prices prevent people from paying their mortgages. Many foreclosures cause huge financial institutions wrapped in mathematical portfolio cocoons to crumble. The government bails them all out. In the meantime, laid off workers don't buy, causing the worst economy in decades. There are many things I do not like about this economy. The many layoffs and the huge lines for jobs are something I don't want to see. The crisis attacks people's retirement funds, causing them to be worth considerably less. And of course I don't want to see my house decline in value, which is what Chesterfield County in their assessments says it did.

But there are a lot of things good about a bad economy. Firstly, I won't have to pay as much real estate tax. But also look at this. People don't drive as much to stores because they can't afford to buy things and they are out of work, so don't need to drive at work. That means fewer traffic jams on the highways. You can get around better. The bad economy means people have to scrap the friviolities of our current lifestyle. Superbowl parties are cancelled. Good. There is altogether too much hoopla about these trivial football pursuits. The celebrity culture takes a hit; people can't attend movies or afford expensive electronic equipment to watch things on. People for once are forced to conserve in their spending and not spend like there is no tomorrow. Maybe we will save more. And if we can't afford to buy food, maybe we will grow our own. That is good for peak oil tells us that we may need these skills some day. Scoundrels that thrive on our live-it-up no-tomorrow lifestyle such as Madoff, Thain, and all of these CEOs and financial wizards are caught and are met with what is due for them. Wild developments popping all over the place dependent on the car and destructive of farmland and the environment are stopped dead in their tracks, because who wants to build new houses if there are so many foreclosed houses out there causing prices to plummet?

Yes, I think that a lot of good is coming out of the fact that we are finding out that we can't live like this forever. We need now to stop superbowling and madoffing around and stop making an idol out of President Obama and instead listen to what President Obama is saying and take heed.

Use a Shoe, not a Ball, on New Year's Day

2008-12-31T17:28:00.001-08:00

Addendum 2009 January 1. I just found out that Key West greets the New Year by dropping a shoe. Watch out when you are in Key West. It's the place where the other shoe drops. A ruby red (as in Oz) high-heel shoe or pump drops from somewhere up high and lands on the ground, with a cross-dresser in it. This may be a tradition in Key West, but for 2008, by dropping a shoe, Key West got thing right. Maybe the TV stations should broadcast next year's New Year from Key West instead of New York*.

Now 2008 has come to an end, and the new year 2009 is less than 4 hours away as I type this. At 12:00 midnight minus 1 minute, the ball in New York City will slowly begin to drop, and when it hits the bottom, it will light "2009" and the new year will begin. Why does it have to be a ball every year? Why not something else? If it is to be something else, what should it be?

The year 2008 was full of things that we knew were coming but chose to ignore. Among these were high gasoline and oil prices, the failure of Lehman Brothers, the bailout of several other financial firms, the trouble with US automakers, the Tibetian revolts, the great Chinese earthquake, millions of foreclosures on houses, the end of the Bush administration, and even really weird phenomena such as glaciers melting and reforming, Al Franken winning a Senate seat by 48 votes, Sarah Palin, and Rod Blagojevich, the last of which tried to auction off another Senate seat.

There is an expression for these types of events (other than "chickens coming home to roost", which was said by a renown minister this year), namely "waiting for the other shoe to drop". In September and October, with the financial crisis, there were so many shoes dropping that the weather forecast should have read, "Cloudy with a 100% chance of shoes, with an accumulation of over 8 inches of shoes expected".

Therefore, in honor of all these other shoes that have dropped this year, I suggest that when the New Year's comes, that a shoe drop on Times Square instead of a ball. Have a huge super-lit up Nike on the top of that pole and let that shoe drop slowly until the new year comes and finally, we can put 2008 to rest.

Happy New Year!

Convicted Felon NOT Elected

2008-11-25T16:12:00.000-08:00

Well as it turned out, the race got closer and closer and closer, and eventually Ted Stevens lost his lead. Now it appears the Senate will not have to evict him since he isn't coming back. We have another Democrat in the Senate. Further, Sarah Palin won't get into this act; she'll go back to firing people and shooting moose in Alaska.

Some of the other results are: Obama won North Carolina, Indiana, and picked Omaha off Nebraska, which otherwise went to McCain. McCain won Missouri and Montana. Merkley won in Oregon, giving the Senate another Democrat. Coleman leads Franken by a mere 200 votes, and a recount is going on, making this election resemble the Bush-Gore contest of 2000, and Rush Limbaugh is still an idiot. There will be a runoff in Georgia, but just all the Barkley vote would have to go to Martin for the Democrats to take this from Saxby Chambliss, the Republican.

So now the focus is on the future and the Obama administration. Can they deal successfully with the economic crisis and the peak oil crisis that lays in wait behind it?

Convicted Felon Elected

2008-11-05T04:35:00.001-08:00

I got up this morning to see what happened with the election. There were 4 states and one Congressional district that were too close to call. Indiana and North Carolina went to Obama, while Montana and Missouri went to McCain. Nebraska's 2nd District (Omaha area) went to McCain by 569 votes, with Sarpy County slightly outweighing Douglas County. The votes in Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, and Omaha are so close that recounts could be triggered, but these will not decide the election. But the electoral map will be up in the air for some time.

Four senate races are too close to call. But it seems that Chambliss has a substantial lead over Martin in Georgia, but he is just slightly over 50%. If he finishes below 50%, a runoff will occur. Coleman is leading Franken slightly, but Rush Limbaugh is still an idiot. In Oregon the Republican is still leading. So maybe the Democrats will have only 56 or 57 in the Senate. I hope that does not give Obama trouble as he takes us through the inevitable crises that lie ahead.

But what really gets to me is that Ted Stevens has been re-elected. That's right, folks. A convicted felon, convicted of a crime involving the Senate of all things, has been reelected. This is not just a silly joke or something. We have a criminal in the Senate. Of course the Senate will not put up with that. They'll throw him out in January, and then Gov. Sarah Palin will nominate herself in a runoff election against Mark Begich, and if Begich could not beat Stevens, what chance has he against Palin? That's right, Sarah Palin in the Senate, and this could set up Obama vs Palin in 2012. What a thought.

I have been following the election closely and have found the best sites for polls were FiveThirtyEight.com and ElectoralVote.com, mainly because both of these were rich in details; Electoral Vote even allowed you to download its data, and I used that to compute which state would win it for Obama. The last results showed California winning it for Obama at 11 pm, but you could just as well say that Hawaii, Oregon, or Washington won it for him. ElectionProjection.com also had some interest; it ranks states as to how conservative or liberal they are.

The Lichtman keys once again have predicted correctly. 9 of the 13 keys were down, with a pattern identical to 1960; only Nomination Contest, Third Party, Social Unrest and Scandal favored McCain. Unlike 1960, this election was not close.

I predict that Obama will be a Crisis President, like Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. So I am going to add a fourth row to my Periodic Presidents table.

Obama Wins

2008-11-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

23:33. They are still whooping it up with Obama's victory, and McCain gave his concession speech, interrupted by rude boos from his supporters. So we are not learning what happened to the remaining states. So here is what CNN has been calling. Florida has gone to Obama. South Dakota went to McCain. Colorado went for Obama. New Mexico went for Obama. I predicted all these earlier except South Dakota. McCain leads by 3 with 88 percent reported in Missouri, so this may be another exit poll error. Arizona went for McCain. Obama has a large lead in Nevada, and I have called it for Obama, but CNN hasn't. I took North Carolina out of the Obama column; with 90 percent in, it is essentially a 50-50 tie. Montana has a huge lead for Obama; I have not called the state, and neither has CNN. The Senate went 56-40 so far, so the Democrats have to win all four of the remining races to become filibuster-proof.

23:21. CNN just declared that McCain is the winner in Nebraska. Not so fast, CNN. From what I see, it is possible that Obama picked off Nebraska's 2nd district, meaning that Nebraska split 4-1 instead of all 5 for McCain. Nebraska handles its electoral votes differently from the other states (except Maine, which has the same system). The overall vote in Nebraska provides 2 electoral votes. So CNN only called these two votes. The other 3 votes are awarded to the winners in the congressional districts. The 1st and 3rd districts are almost certainly going to go to McCain, but it is possible that Obama picked off the 2nd, which contains Omaha. The district consists (from Wikipedia) of Douglas County plus the urban areas of Sarpy county. Obama is winning Douglas County easily by 66,945-60,663, a 5 percent margin. Sarpy County is tied, but only 1 percent have reported. I will look some more to see just what happened.

23:05. Well, now it is official. Barack Obama has just been elected President of the United States. It happened with the closing of Western states at 11 pm. There is so much hoopla about him winning that CNN has not told us anything about how these states went. So I will tell you right here. Obama took California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii for 77 electoral votes, and McCain took his own private Idaho for 4 electoral votes. I now have Obama ahead by 337-143, or more than enough. Further, just two minutes before this tremendously big announcement, CNN announced Virginia as the winner for Virginia. I had already called this at 7:15, shortly after Virginia's polls closed. This is because exit poll analysis showed Obama with a 6 point lead in Virginia. A commenter says I should have not called Virginia at that time. Indeed, I am depending on the worthiness of exit polls for this announcement.

And now I will have to admit something. Obama did not win after 10 with Nevada. I checked Indiana and found that the race there has tightened. The exit polls there have changed, and they suggest something like a 50-50 tie, so I had to put Indiana in the "can't call" column. That put Obama back to 260, or short of the 269 needed to win. This sort of thing can happen. I was able to call states much sooner than the networks, but that was at the risk of making a few errors. But so far, I have made just one possible error, Indiana. That's better than the networks with 2000 and their double false call for Florida.

22:45. Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. That's right, exit poll analysis shows that Al Franken has won his bid to become the first talk-show host that I know about to become a Senator. He won by 48-37-11.

22:03. Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. The 10 pm report of states pushed him over the top. CNN called Iowa for Obama. I checked Nevada and found that Obama will win by 8 points there. That pushes Obama over the top. It is now Obama 271 (2 more than needed), McCain 130. I have been looking at election returns. Now finally the DC suburbs and Tidewater are coming in to Virginia's results. The count is nearly tied. I had earlier found that Obama won Virginia. I suspect it will be a while before the networks call it, however.

Arizona is so close that I cannot call it. The exit polls suggests that each candidate has 50 percent of the vote. It may be the margin of error is greater than the margin of victory here. This is McCain's home state. I find that surprising. I still think McCain may win it, especially since I see a huge lead for McCain in Mississippi, after I found through exit polls that it was so close there that it could not be called. Florida can't be called either.

21:44. Obama now has 259 electoral votes, or 10 short of victory (269-269 tie is a win for Obama). McCain has 110; actually probably more than that but I have not exit-polled several likely McCain states, and the networks have not called them either.

Some unusual things have popped up. Mississippi is so close that I can't call it. I tried analyzing it with exit polls, and I got one category gave me an Obama victory, and another one a McCain one, both of these slim. For sure I thought this would go McCain. McCain has won Nebraska by 8 votes, but I see nowhere where it analyzes it by districts. I think there is a chance Obama can pick off Omaha, so I have given McCain only 4 of Nebraska's 5 electoral votes.

20:35. Arkansas closed its polls. It went for McCain by about 10 points. The strange thing here about CNN is that they called New Hampshire, and CNN for the past few minutes has harped all over the place about how McCain is losing in New Hampshire, but they ignored Arkansas. They did not even say that it is too close to call. No. McCain has it. Obama 173, McCain 60.

20:23. Obama continues on a roll. The 8 pm results on CNN gave Obama MA, IL, CT, NJ, ME, DE, MD, and DC, and McCain got OK and TN. By using exit poll analysis, I have determined that Obama has won Missouri by about 4 points, and that Florida shows a slim Obama race, but this one looks like a nailbiter. Obama leads 50-48.5 or so. So I am not calling it. So now Obama leads 173-54.

Virginia is beginning to annoy me. I have called it for Obama by 6 points, but McCain persists with a lead. CNN shows why. Not a single Northern Virginia return has been reported. McCain opened up with a 6 point lead in Virginia just after 7 pm, but that was just one county - Chesterfield. McCain has taken that. But get this. Obama has taken Henrico County. That normally goes Republican. This seems to verify for me that in the end, Obama will be ahead in Virginia. Also I note that Warner has beaten Gilmore, and Hagan is leading over Elizabeth Dole, who I want out because of her unstated assumption that everyone should believe in God.

Obama has won North Carolina

2008-11-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

19:51. Obama now has 62 electoral votes to 28 for McCain. In particular, by using exit poll data, I have found that Obama has won North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia and Vermont has been called for Obama. McCain has won Kentucky by call and exit polls show he also won Georgia and West Virginia. Indiana seems to have gone to Obama by 2 points, but actual voting data persists with a McCain edge. But it does look like a really good night for Obama. CNN did an analysis in which they show that rural conservative areas of Indiana have gone to Obama.

Obama Has Won Virginia

2008-11-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

The first results are now in for this historic election, and we have a winner. Barack Obama has won Virginia. It is the first time that the Democrats have won Virginia since 1964. The networks have not called it, but Barack has won, as determined by the same exit poll technique that I used in the primaries. I copy the exit poll data and then use SUMPRODUCT in Excel to reveal the projected percentages. The results are Obama 54%, McCain 45%, and other 1%.

Some people have said that if Virginia goes to Obama, it is over. Well here you see it. Obama has won the election. The rest of the evening will be Congress and Presidential confirmation.

No Ballpark on Martins and Market!

2008-10-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

The Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper had for its oversized headline "No Ballpark for Boulevard", meaning that Richmond has decided to go ahead with a plan to build a new stadium in Shockoe Bottom instead of at Boulevard. It would be bounded by Ambler St, Crane Street, Broad Street, 18th Street, and Franklin Street just to the east of downtown Richmond, Virginia, and adjacent to the railroad tracks and Main Street Station. If you get off at I-95 there, you would head straight into the ballpark. If you stop off the train at the Main Street Station, it is an easy walk. However, I find this plan unacceptable.

I find this plan unacceptable because it would destroy the 17th Street Farmers' Market, and it would destroy the roosting grounds for the tens of thousands of purple martins that converge in Richmond every August. The Farmers' Market is a good place to get locally-grown food, and destruction of this would mean more food shipped from elsewhere, using up precious oil and putting more CO₂ in the atmosphere. This place needs to be kept, so we don't have to go out somewhere to a big supermarket to get food brought in from California or Chile.

The plan would also destroy the purple martins' roosting grounds. This has turned into one of Richmond's star attractions. Every August tens of thousands of purple martins descend on the city, going into a line of pear trees to roost for the night. It has become a star attraction and a magnificent spectacle. The ballpark would eliminate the trees that they roost in. Where would the martins go? Would they go elsewhere? Or would they remain there, roosting in the roof of the stadium and pooping all over the place nearby, as well as interfering with baseball games being played there (easy flyout turns into bases-loaded triple when the ball strikes a purple martin…). It would be another case of depriving a bird of its natural habitat.

Further, it would make a difficult parking situation impossible, when you add maybe 2,000 or more parked vehicles to the area.

So I say don't build the stadium there! Find somewhere where we don't interfere with entities that represent the planet or are helping it.

Pay your Credit Card Debt!

2008-10-12T16:06:00.001-07:00

Well, it looks like they have done it; dropped the Dow Jones average by 2400 points in a few weeks, even after the bailout package was submitted. But on 2008 October 10, some signs of a recovery or of a "bottom" emerged. Stocks soared 800 points, then they soared 800 points, although they still finished down 125 points. Financial stocks were up, indicating that maybe these institutions may be getting over the credit freeze.

But a new crisis looms. This is personal credit card debt. It seems that Americans have not learned what credit cards are for. They are for giving you enough time to pay for things you need and can afford, and as a convenience in shopping so you don't have to carry wads of bills and piles of coins. They are not for delaying payment over and over and over again so that you can live off the hog for huge periods of time. It seems many Americans have done this. The average American (including children) has accumulated $9600 of credit card debt. The debt for families is probably about $25,000. The total is nearly a trillion dollars: $950,000,000,000. Many Americans simply pay the minimum amount and let it accumulate interest; some don't even do that and accumulate penalties as well. So far the banks have handled it OK.

But sooner or later things will give out, and a new crisis similar to the mortgage crisis will break out, with a new round of credit freezes and stock market droppings. This will hurt people's retirement savings all over the place. These people are being punished for the inability of others to pay their credit card debt.

And also for the banks' actions on credit cards. It seems they have allowed people to charge all over the place so they can get the high interest rates. No matter that some can't pay. I feel the banks have been irresponsible in the way they get people to sign up. They send credit card applications willy-nilly all over the place regardless of the recipient's ability to pay. They have sent scores of applications to my mother, who is in assisted living, for instance. The worst offender seems to be HSBC, which for a while kept sending and sending and sending despite my pleas for them to stop. It makes me want to see HSBC go bankrupt. However, they are one of the largest banks in the world, so if they go bankrupt, it will really cause a calamity on the markets. Perhaps they could be bailed out if they get into trouble, but trouble or not, their CEO and other leading officials deserve to get long prison terms for what they did.

As far as you, the individual is concerned, the best thing you can do to prevent this new crisis from occurring is to pay your credit card debt. You agreed to pay the money back when you charged the items, so you need to do it, and now is the time to do it. It will help your finances, and it will help the bank who issued you the credit card. It is the patriotic thing to do, more than waving the flag or going out on a shopping spree, as President Bush in 2001 would have had you do.

So pay up and help your country and your economy.

"Six Hundred Points!"

2008-09-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

That's what Democratic Repr. Joe Crowley said as the roll call board recorded an accelerating number of NO votes on the $700 billion bailout page today, 2008 September 29 and as the Dow Jones average showed down 600 points. House Republicans ignored him. They continued to finger NO on the voting buttons, NO, NO, NO, YES, NO, …

What were they trying to do? Wreck the Country? What would you expect anyway from the Party that Wrecked America?

Yes the bailout plan has flaws, and yes, we need to institute other measures to stem this financial crisis, and we also need to deal with the Bear that stands behind this crisis, Peak Oil. But we were warned that the consequences of having NO measure at all were immense. Destruction of 401(k)'s, unable to get any loans anywhere, getting thrown out of work and unable to pay for college, clothes, or even food for your family were among these consequences.

Yet these House Republicans kept at it, spouting off their free-market rhetoric, even though we know that free-market economics led us straight into the Great Depression of the 1930s. Most of them are under the age of 75, which meant they never knew of the deprivations of that depression. In fact, many are young smart alecks under the age of 50 who know nothing except our present society's predilection for get it tomorrow, get what you want, drive anywhere you please, and get it now, pay later. I urge you to vote against any Republican running for office, especially the House and especially those who voted NO, and to support campaigns against the Republicans, such as the Democratic National Committee. Throw Randy Forbes (Rep, VA) out of office. He voted NO. Eric Cantor (Rep, VA) is probably OK; he voted YES.

So the bill needs to be reconsidered, and now religion gets in the way. (by the way, I urge you to see "Religulous", a new movie opening in theaters this week, starring Bill Maher). September 30 is Tishri 1; i.e., Rosh Hashanah,so they want to put saving the nation's economy on the back burner while the Jewish New Year is celebrated. So it will be Thursday before Congress can get back to it. I am glad to see that recess has been postponed. Fixing this financial mess takes precedence over any political campaign.

So I hope they consider it and then come up with a plan that a majority will vote on. It's either that or maybe the next Great Depression. And then after that and the elections, let's get to work on resolving this thing once and for all, so we can deal with the Peak Oil Bear that lies beyond.

Vote the Republicans Out!

2008-09-26T05:28:00.001-07:00

During all these years and years we lived on borrowed money. If you wanted a TV, just charge it. Now all these years of debt are beginning to wreck the world economy. I am not sure what the eventual solution is, but in the meantime we cannot just wreck the economy and cause a second Great Depression. That is why this Federal bailout package has been prepared in Congress. It does not solve the problem, but it does keep things running while we work out a better solution. If it does not pass, the markets will crash, people may lose much of their savings, corporations will not be able to get cash, unemployment will skyrocket, and many other dreadful things will happen. So surely it will pass.

But it may not, because House Republicans, self-righteous about free markets (which are not working now), are trying to block the deal. They are doing nothing less than wrecking our country. That's right, Republicans are the Party that Wrecked America and they are trying to wreck it some more. They are sacrificing the world economy for some piece of Adamsonian free-market rhetoric.

I therefore call for votes against Congressional Republicans all over the place. Do NOT vote for a Republican congressman or senator this November! Don't even vote for Roscoe Bartlett in Maryland's Sixth District, even though he knows more about Peak Oil than anyone else in Congress, unless he agrees to the Federal bailout. If your Republican candidate is unopposed, write in someone. We need at least a 60% Democratic congress so we can shut these country killers up.

As far as the Presidency is concerned, it looks very much like Obama is going to win. McCain is showing himself off to be some sort of blundering goon. He nominates a young, inexperienced small-state governor for vice president, he skips a Letterman show, allowing Letterman to lampoon McCain all over the place, and he does not want to participate in a debate. Already the polls are swinging around against him - Obama is ahead in North Carolina. Yes, vote for Obama, but I take note that perhaps McCain is not one of these right-wing free-market Congressional Republican nutjobs. He is just simply a blunderer.

PS. The expression "Party that Wrecked America" for Republicans is due to Jim Kunstler.

Go for the Jays, Richmond!

2008-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

The minor leagues have ended play for the year. Play of baseball, that is. Now they are playing a new game, namely affiliation musical chairs. And what is shaping up is the biggest musical chairs in years, involving six each of Major League and AAA teams. And this gives some hope to Richmond, Virginia. Richmond may yet be able to snag an AAA team, even though its ballpark is substandard. This is because Richmond is not the only AAA city around with a substandard ballpark.

In January, the Atlanta Braves announced that it is moving the Richmond Braves to Gwinnett County, which is a suburb of Atlanta. This is happening, and so Richmond no longer has a ball club. How does Richmond get one? A long-standing problem has been the ballpark, with its uneven and floody field and a stadium that has shown signs of wear.

Despite this, Richmond may be able to get another AAA ballclub anyway. Earlier I had said Richmond should watch the New York Mets, since it does not like having to partner with the New Orleans Zephyrs, since that club is so far. However, the Mets showed an interest in getting Syracuse instead. That's even closer to New York than Richmond. The Syracuse Chiefs are an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. So I said maybe Richmond should watch Toronto.

But what is evolving instead is the biggest free-for-all in years. First of all, the New York Mets have changed their aim and went for the Buffalo Bisons instead, after the Bisons were let go by Cleveland, since they wanted the Columbus Clippers instead. The Clippers were with the Washington Nationals, who now seem to be teaming up with the Syracuse Chiefs, although the deal is not settled yet, which would mean the Toronto Blue Jays have no AAA affiliate. Meanwhile the Florida (to be renamed Miami) Marlins got the New Orleans Zephyrs, so they dropped the Albuquerque Isotopes, who are going for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who abandoned the Las Vegas 51s, leaving that otherworldly team all by itself on Planet Nobody. Now that was a mouthful. And why did these said Los Angeles Dodgers leave the 51s? Because they had an inferior ballpark, that's why. Sound familiar, Richmond?

First of all, let's make a table of the switches:

AAA Team	Were with this Major team	who will now have
Las Vegas 51s	Los Angeles Dodgers	Albuquerque Isotopes
Albuquerque Isotopes	Florida (Miami) Marlins	New Orleans Zephyrs
New Orleans Zephyrs	New York Mets	Buffalo Bisons
Buffalo Bisons	Cleveland Indians	Columbus Clippers
Columbus Clippers	Washington Nationals	Syracuse Chiefs
Syracuse Chiefs	Toronto Blue Jays	?

It seems like the Toronto Blue Jays will have to settle for the Las Vegas 51s.

But wait. Why did the Dodgers quit the 51s? A bad stadium, that's why. So the Toronto Blue Jays are now stuck with a team that is far away with a bad stadium. So why don't they move the 51s to Richmond? They would still have an AAA team with a bad stadium, but at least it would be much closer. As part of a deal, the Jays would demand that a new stadium be constructed, probably in the winter of 2010. If the team were moved, I would recommend that the name be changed to the Richmond Martins.

There are problems with this deal, though. Richmond does not currently have a franchise, and the Las Vegas community probably owns the 51s. For Toronto to do this, they would have to buy the 51s, then move them to Richmond, which would be in the Pacific Coast League. To fix that problem would require that some PCL team be moved to the International League, or an IL team be moved to the PCL, because a league can't compete with an odd number of teams. But maybe these problems can be resolved, so give it a chance.

Now is the time to act. Richmond, Go for the Jays!

Pigs and Nowhere Bridges

2008-09-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well now the 2008 Presidential Campaign is off and running! Both candidates have had their conventions, and both have selected their VP running mates. Barack Obama selected experience with his choice of Sen. Joe Biden, and John McCain went off the deep end with his choice for that rootin' tootin' cowgirl from Alaska, Sarah Palin. So how are they doing now?

There are several sites, but the one with the clearest picture in my opinion is Electoral Vote.Com, which uses the most recent poll or polls in each state to give a rating on that state, from solid Republican to solid Democrat. Right now it suggests a close win for Obama, with 281 electoral votes, with 27 votes tied (Florida) and the rest for McCain. If you give Florida, Colorado, and North Dakota to McCain, the result is a 269-269 tie, which would mean that Obama wins, since Congress is going to be Democratic.

The Lichtman Keys to the White House say that Obama will win, with 9 keys down in the same pattern as in 1960. But like 1960, there is a characteristic about Obama, namely that he has African ancestry, which could make this race close instead. In 1960, the characteristic of Kennedy was his Roman Catholic religion.

So how is the campaign doing? Just like the primaries. It's like Alice in Wonderland. Obama talks about putting lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig. The media are really taking off on this one. Apparently he was referring to Sarah Palin's inexperience and perhaps her potential scandals. Someone pointed out that Obama should be going after McCain instead, attacking his platform.

Then there's the bridge to nowhere. That has inspired me to redo the lyrics to the Beatles' "Nowhere Man", changing the title to "Nowhere Girl":

Nowhere Girl

She's a real nowhere Girl,
Going on her campaign whirl,
Making all her words for the
Bridge to Nowhere.

Doesn't have a point to go,
Knows not where it's going to,
Isn't the bridge a bit like You, nowhere?
Nowhere Girl, please listen,
You don't know when you're flippin',
Nowhere Girl, the bridge is at your command.

(lead guitar)

She's as blind as she can be,
Just sees what she wants to see,
Nowhere Girl can you see me at all?

Nowhere Girl, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Just drive off that Bridge,
and go nowhere.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Says she's for and then against,
Isn't she a bit like John and George?

Nowhere Girl please listen,
you don't know where your missin'
Nowhere Girl, the bridge is at your command

She's a real Nowhere Girl,
Going on her campaign whirl,
Speaking all her words for the
Bridge to Nowhere.
Making all her nowhere nays
for no bridge.
Making all her nowhere nays
for no bridge.

Seems she said she favors it then she is against it. There was the McCain attack on Biden (he does the same thing, too. He should go after Obama instead.) about his support for stem cell research. But for the most part all the attention is on Sarah Palin, and McCain, Obama, and Biden are taking second seats. This is good, because it will bring up all the imperfections of her, including her two scandals, which could explode under media attack.

Indeed Sarah Palin is a dangerous candidate. She said that troops in Iraq were on “a task that is from God”. That is dangerous! God does not exist, like people exist. If people are like houses, than God is like an unoccupied property. What Sarah Palin did was to occupy that property, with guess who? Dubya himself, George W. Bush. She has just deified the President of the United States and made him God. Now if she should get that position, she would occupy the God seat. In the past, the most notable occupants of the God seat have been totalitarian dictators, who can use the power of God to do what he wants with his or her countrymen. So this implies that Palin could become a dictator. So please keep her out of the White House. Don't vote for her on Election Day. Vote for Obama. The wolves, moose, and polar bears will appreciate your vote.

It Won't Be a Toss-Up

2008-08-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Today in the Sunday Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper (but not the web site, called Inrich.com), two columns appeared about whether the Obama-McCain election will be a toss-up. One column, authored by Alan Abramowitz, Thomas E. Mann, and Larry J. Sabato, says "No", that Obama will win it easily. The other, authored by Jim Campbell, says "Yes"; it isn't decided yet. So which is right?

In Abramowitz et. al.'s column, they say consider the following. Barack Obama has led John McCain in every national poll for the last two months. They also say that Obama is leading in 11 of the 12 closest states in 2004. However, polls don't mean that much. At this time in 2004, Kerry had a comfortable electoral lead in the polls with 327 electoral votes. At this time in 1988, Dukakis was leading by double digits. But both in November. I checked on the 12 closest Dukakis states. According to Electoral-Vote.com, out of these 12 states, McCain is currently leading in Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. That is 4 out of the 12 states, not just 1. It is possible the article was written when Obama was leading in these states, which he did sometime within the past two months.

They also refer to voter identification. But that doesn't matter that much. Remember the Reagan Democrats?

At the end, Abramowitz and the others hit upon some real reasons why Obama will win. There is an unpopular war going on. The economy is souring. The same thing happened in 1952, and Eisenhower easily defeated the party in power, the Democrats. So the same thing may happen this year. I would also like to note that this election is similar to 1960 as well: recession, several foreign policy mistakes, including Cuba and the U-2 incident, plus in addition the opposition was lead by a charismatic figure: John F. Kennedy. Obama appears to be charismatic, all the more reason why we can expect a win from him.

So Abramowitz is basically correct, but he can eliminate his entire article except the last two paragraphs. They are the ones that matter.

Another article was written by Jim Campbell. I wonder if he is the same Jim Campbell that has commented on Allan Lichtman's columns. He says that Bush's low approval ratings do not matter much in this election because it is an "open seat" election. According to Allan Lichtman, the record of the current President is the most important factor in determining who will win. An election is essentially a referendum on the current administration. Since Bush's record is so abysmal, any Republican is going to encounter serious difficulties in getting elected in 2008. He says that McCain votes liberal 26% of the time but Obama votes conservative only 5% of the time, meaning McCain is more centrist than Obama is. Mr. Campbell discounts the value of polls (probably true).

In the last paragraph, he hits upon a criterion which has not appeared at all before: race. Something like it appeared in 1960, with religion being the criterion. Despite huge factors favoring the Democrats, Kennedy eked out one of the closest elections in history. Since other factors favor this election being like 1960, that suggests that Obama's race could make this one close.

One indicator that I have found that is better than anything else I have seen is Allan Lichtman's 13 keys. These are statements about the situation at election time. If five or fewer are false, the incumbent party candidate wins, else the challenging party wins. Six of the keys involve candidate charisma, foreign policy, and the economy, and the others deal with nomination contest, third parties, social unrest, scandals, policy, and incumbency. Right now 9 keys are down, and pattern of keys is identical to 1960. This supports my conclusion that Obama should win, but his race may be an impediment to his victory, like religion for Kennedy. It is sad that this is the case, but it is. We got a ways to go yet on that long road to a racially-blind society.

Don't Put High-A in Richmond!

2008-08-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today I found out from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that there is a good chance that a team from the High-A California League will want to move to Richmond. There are two such teams, both of which have stadium problems (not issues!). Sound familiar, Richmond? They may be switching to the High-A Carolina League.

I did some wikipediaing around and found that the two teams are the High Desert Mavericks, a Seattle Mariners farm team, and the Bakersfield Blaze, a farm team of the Bush-League Texas Rangers. They say that the Blaze will go to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the Mavericks to Richmond, Virginia. According to the Bakersfield Californian, the parent Rangers are unhappy with Sam Lynn Field, because, among other things, it faces southeast or east so that the setting sun glares into the eyes of the fielders. It seems that Bakersfield isn't doing anything about it. So you think the Texas Rangers are going to do any better in Richmond? There are stadium problems in Richmond, too, such as an uneven field and poor drainage. This is the reason the Richmond Braves are leaving.

The same deal with the High Desert Mavericks. Their stadium also needs repair and the people of Adelanto, California, will not provide it. They may be moving to Fayetteville, North Carolina, although the Californian says Fayetteville cannot provide the required stadium. Further, as I mentioned earlier, the Red Sox bought out the Houston Astros' Carolina League affiliate Salem Avalanche. They currently have the Lancaster JetHawks in the California League. Are they going to move the JetHawks east?

In any case, a High-A is a terrible deal for Richmond. The population of Richmond exceeds the total of all the populations of all the cities in the Carolina League! (1.2 million to 1 million, according to a commenter on an earlier InRich.com article). Richmond will be the hippopotamus of the Carolina League if the Blaze moves to Richmond. And it isn't really High-A anyway. A long time ago minor league baseball tried to find a letter that was better or A'er than A, and so they wound up stuttering: AA, AAA level baseball. AAA should be renamed A, AA should be B, High-A should be C and Low-A should be D. Would Richmond really be happy with a Class C Team?

I think Richmond should reject any High-A (i.e, C) team. Richmond deserves better. They should watch the New York Mets and the New Orleans Zephyrs, a geographically unhappy pair. The Mets want Syracuse instead, and if that happens, the Toronto Blue Jays would get the Zephyrs. Richmond should try to get the Blue Jays to bring the Zephyrs to Richmond. If that happens, I would like to see the team named the Richmond Martins in honor of the birds frequenting 17th and Grace at this time of the year.

If this falls through, a year or two without minor league baseball is far better than having to settle for a puny little Carolina League team.

Don't Impeach Bush and Cheney!

2008-07-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

Last week I got this quote from Jim Kunstler's Clusterfckk Nation Chronicles:

Things may get so chaotic that Mr. Bush and his circle may actually be removed from the scene before his term in office expires. He could go out of office much the way he came in: by means unconventional. Mrs. Pelosi will keep the seat in the oval office warm for a few months. Then the prosecutions will begin.

DON'T!!!

You want to elect John McCain, Mr. Kunstler!??

That's what will happen if Bush and Cheney leave office before election day. Right now the election is a forum on how Bush has done in office; i.e., terrible. This means that Barack Obama should win the election, as 9 (or 7, as Mr. Lichtman sees it) keys are down. These keys express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the Bush administration. Two of the keys relate to the economy, for which the President gets credit or blame, no matter how much control he has over it. Two relate to foreign policy. Both are doing terrible right now. So Barack Obama should win.

But not if Bush and Cheney get impeached and removed from office. If that happens, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, takes over. That turns the entire thing upside down. Now people will blame Pelosi for the bad economy and the Iraq war. So they will turn to the party that is not in power, which now will be the Republicans. Hence McCain would win.

We must not let McCain win the election, as he will turn the Supreme Court way over to the right and will not be able to lead the world through the upcoming energy crisis. Barack Obama, with his leadership style, should be able to lead us through the crisis. So we need to elect him. So please. Do NOT impeach Bush and Cheney!

Obama Campaign Calls

2008-06-26T16:13:00.001-07:00

Well now the campaign has begun. It's Barack Obama vs John McCain. Already the solicitations are coming in. So far the worst violator has been the Obama campaign, calling me every week it seems asking for money for the campaign. I do want Obama to win this election, for I feel he can lead us through the upcoming crisis better than McCain. This makes it difficult for me, as I keep getting these calls from his campaign, and so far I have not gotten one from McCain. But do I want to contribute to his campaign?

No way. Barack Obama has nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in his war chest, while McCain has only a third as much. He has plenty of money. He can advertise all over the place and smother the airwaves with ads. I hope he does that. Campaign ads, even evangelical Republican ones, are better than blaring ads from auto dealerships hawking, or I might say pigging, their SUVs or ads for the same medicines over and over again. So far Obama's ads have been winners. But he already has the money for that, and for the rest of his campaign. If I want to help Obama, I will do so with action, not money.

Although McCain has not called me since Obama won the Democratic nomination, he still threw five computer calls at me in 2008 February during primary season. Further, the Republicans keep sending me surveys and other items making the incorrect assumption that I am a Republican. I answer the surveys and complain to them about their computer call tactics. So which camp is worse with the campaign? McCain's, that's who. That is because Obama prefers to have real people talk to me, whereas McCain sends out computers. Do you want someone in the White House who can relate to people, or someone who can relate to computers? The answer is clear. I support Obama.