Sporting Random Thoughts - 4/26

Is today the end of the NFL lockout? Supposedly a federal judge has ruled in favor of the NFL’s players effectively lifting the lockout and ordering the resumption of business as usual in the NFL. But does it do that? I wasn’t aware that a federal judge has the power to force a private company and its franchise holders to just resume business as usual thanks to a convincing argument by another party. I can’t imagine that the owners in the NFL like being told what their business is by some federal judge and besides the lockout it doesn’t seem likely that a judge can allow persons to enter private property, which is what has happened with many players showing up to various team facilities today. Strangely in the ruling is a section titled “The Public Interest Does Not Favor The 'Lockout'.” So what? The judge is being lauded for keeping the public in mind and however good that sounds it bears understanding that it isn’t the judge’s job to keep in mind the public interest, it is their job to apply the law to the complaint. And failing to do so only makes appeals more likely to succeed. I think that there are ways that the owners can push back and I think that they will if they continue to be provoked by a P.R. campaign masquerading as negotiations that are aided by yet another rogue judge. Day after day, the only argument given by NFLPA (the player’s union, which isn’t even a thing anymore after they de-certified once the lockout started) head DeMaurice Smith consists entirely of insults, making brash statements that the judge has ruled that the NFL’s lockout was illegal (not really) and that all the players want to do is play football and that the owners are petty and that’s just a sampling of comments from today. Why would the owners want to even deal with a publicity hungry trash talker like that? I don’t think anything’s over and fear that publishing such a lopsided ruling instead of allowing mediation work will only further endanger the NFL season. That judge earns an F for what will likely prove to be a time-costly distraction.

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel is under fire after being caught, doing what exactly? Examination of the sports punditocracy one could easily think that what Tressel did was truly abhorrent. But was it? That depends on one’s understanding of right and wrong when it comes to college athletics. Tressel was made aware that some of his players had traded Ohio State memorabilia for material goods (which is an NCAA violation) and then he failed to disclose that information until just about the last minute. And from the perspective of the NCAA, the ruling body underlining the rules and structure of college football, Tressel broke a rule and will be punished for that. It is my opinion that whatever Tressel did, it just doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. He wasn’t right doing that but he didn’t hurt anyone. And many of the sportswriters currently attacking Tressel are first in line to question the arcane, albeit ridiculous to the layman rules of the NCAA, including the one that led to this issue. It serves no purpose to pretend that Tressel is some kind of criminal, worse than most even when the case hasn’t even been fully investigated. Tressel may lose his job and his likelihood as a result of poor decisions, conviction before the details are fully known is just cheering for a person’s life to be ruined as if for sport.

Vegas Random Thoughts

I was in Las Vegas last week for work and made some observations. I’ve finally washed myself enough (honestly I thought about lighting myself on fire) times to get over the experience enough to report on it.

Much of the entrances to casinos on the Las Vegas strip are large, heavy glass doors and very few are power enabled. Many of these heavy glass doors are push in both directions, resulting in millions of visible fingerprints akin to horrible disgusting snowflakes littering these doors by the billion where people push on the glass to avoid the bacteria ridden handles . Every smudge made by everything touched by each passer-by throughout the day is preserved for the entirety between cleanings like some horrible anthropology experiment. Every single glass door in Vegas looks this way. It’s dreadful.

If you want to discourage yourself from eating, walk around and observe. Seriously. This observation is mean, but it’s true. Some evenings I felt like a snack and I walked around to find something suitable. I knew I shouldn’t and what I found to be effective in dissuading me was to see who else was partaking in what I was considering and look at their relative shape. Which was almost always large. I wasn’t really hungry and was more or less just looking to waste time. Walking around a busy eatery at night you’ll see customers waddling about throughout a quarter-mile radius devouring oversized goodies and smudging glass doors. “Don’t be that guy” is what I told myself and it worked. That’s not cool and I can’t be described as thin, but sometimes the truth hurts.

There is an oxygen bar on the second floor of the New York New York Casino that is right at the door that leads to the path over the street and to Excalibur Casino. This oxygen bar is immediately next to a very pungent Nathan’s hot dog stand. I don’t get it. I have seen this oxygen bar there every time I have visited Vegas over the last three years and it’s always there and it always smells heavily of hot dogs. Not exactly a pleasant companion scent to oxygen inhalation. Who goes there? I’ve never seen anyone.

Almost no one in Las Vegas understands the mechanics of a moving walkway. They do, however, understand that it’s best to occupy as much space as possible on a moving walkway in order to halt the progress of anyone trying to, ahem, walk. It’s just easier to avoid them.

I don’t understand the strange economics of fancy stores in Vegas. There are many fancy malls in Las Vegas the most fancy I think being Crystal’s in the City Center area. All these fancy stores and no one in them at any point that I walked past them. Thousands of tourists in cargo shorts, T-shirts and smudged fingers from giant ice cream cones and other smudges obtained from various doors, and none of them have the inclination to shop at these fancy stores. How do they make money? How do they pay their rent? Is there rent for them? I don’t get it. Can they sell one item once a month and make enough?

Kumbaya on the PTC?

I regret nothing. Even though it took a wedge between TimDido and I to get a post out of dyvaeh, I was ecstatic to read that post as the PTC community is home to very good writers and anything written by D is very much worth the time. Also, kudos goes to Mrs. D for reading and for alerting D to what I consider a mostly harmless spat. Mostly harmless because in the end it isn’t all that substantial as TimDido and I agree on most every political issue. I’ve never thought of any disagreement and subsequent discussion to be harmful even with those who’s incoherent and unintelligible belligerence make one contemplate vigorously shaking them. TimDido is certainly not one of those people.

The danger in ever really believing in something is falling into the trap of sounding like a smug a-hole when discussing it, even amongst true believers. Another inevitable trap is misinterpretation leading to mischaracterization, telling another person what they believe based on that misinterpretation. Of course, I may be over-thinking that. It may be that I can be incomprehensible at times. I did get all C’s in English after all.

Whatever the reason, healthy debate can be good. I’m against the legalization of pot and I cannot think of a plausible change that could convince me otherwise. I still believe that pot-heads are the most honest proponents of legalization and I do not believe that all proponents of it are pot-heads. I do respect the straight-libertarian argument of personal freedom but find it unconvincing.

I agree wholeheartedly with D that government regulations and wealth distribution are the source of all earthly problems. Half of adults in this country pay nothing in taxes, most of them receive direct “benefits” from the taxes paid by others. They have no idea that those “benefits” have a real actual cost and that their friends and neighbors are the ones who pay it. They have become the controlling voting bloc in this country. Never mind that there isn’t enough already and that fact just provides a reason for further “investment” by fairy-tale pedaling incompetents like you know who. But I digress. I love you guys.

A taxing tale...

Imagine that you have a package to ship somewhere. Basically there are three choices, UPS, FedEx or USPS, two private companies and the other a federal government entity. Money to send the package comes from your income; income leftover after some of it was taxed by the federal government, proprietor of one of the three shipping choices. Accounting gimmick-wise, USPS does not receive direct tax revenue, but it loses billions of dollars every year and never has to pay anything back, you tell me where the difference comes from. So in a sense, you are paying for, by taxes, the advertisement of a product that competes against others for your hard earned post-tax income.

What if you were to choose one of the others? While neither FedEx nor UPS is government owned they are definitely well represented in Washington in disparate ways. Many UPS employees belong to unions, unions that take mandatory dues from the paychecks of those employees and send 90% of a large portion of those dues to democrat politicians. Additionally, UPS pays lobbyists to coerce legislators to pass laws forcing unionization on FedEx employees which is a win for both sides. FedEx has to pay more to offer its services and more union members mean more campaign contributions for democrat politicians. Your taxed income pays for the salaries of politicians and DC venues to discuss making one company’s business more difficult while your post-tax income spent on a UPS package pays salaries for employees that have money withheld by unions who give it to democrats for campaigns and for lobbyists to talk those politicians whose campaigns are funded by UPS employees union dues into making their competitor’s business harder and enriching the politician’s campaign chests, which will be passed on to you in terms of higher prices for purchasing something from FedEx, money left over after paying for politicians to discuss policies that leaves you with less and less.

Convoluted enough for you? A day late and a dollar short, happy tax day!

Random Debt Thoughts – 4/14

A quote from the Wall Street Journal this morning:

According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans—most of whom are far from wealthy—were taxed at 100%, it wouldn't cover Mr. Obama's deficit for this year.

That deficit this year is $1.6452 trillion. Within this reality all that can be cut is $38.5 billion (and yes I count the entire thing, those accounting measures are valid) and the President’s only answer is tax increases for the top 2% who already pay the highest rate on their taxable incomes. It appears as though the number of people voting themselves goodies at the expense of others is past half the electorate. We’re doomed.

It seems to have become conventional wisdom that every complaint made by a conservative towards the President’s budget must begin with a two-minute hate of former President Bush. It’s ridiculous on two counts. Most importantly, that ship has sailed. President Bush was no spend thrift and did sign bills in regard to spending that were irresponsible but he’s no longer in office and can’t help with what’s happening now nor change the past. Second, spending under the President has ballooned to unprecedented levels. The table below (Source) examines the debt by time period from 2002-2011 (to be fair, President Bush could not be responsible, because he didn’t sign it, for any budgets before 2002 and President Obama not for any before 2010, for the same non-signing reason).The reason for the split is to account for both houses of congress (they are in charge of creating the budget) changing to democrat control in 2006. The data shows that democrat congresses in 2007 and 2008 appropriated a budget with more debt in it than the prior 6 years combined. And yes, President Bush signed them. Even accounting for the more than TRIPLING of average debt per year following democrat control the average debt over the 8 years attributed to the Bush presidency was $443.49 billion per year compared to $1469.12 billion per year under President Obama. While it may be cathartic for the navel gazing to disown President Bush for spending under his watch; remember that average deficits have increased 69.81% per year under President Obama.

Also up for piñata duty recently has been House Speaker Boehner. Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have spent the vast majority of their shows in the last week decrying the budget compromise. It’s true that it isn’t enough. But, unfortunately, it’s the best those serious about spending could get. And plainly stating the deficiencies of the compromise is more than enough. Limbaugh and Levin go too far, ridiculing and questioning the fortitude of the Speaker. No matter what they think, shutting down the government would have done no good and encouraging Republicans to act as buffoons (such as some democrats) will do nothing to encourage citizens to support more like them. The most import thing for Republicans in Congress now is to do the best work they can given the current situation and educate the public enough to encourage them to send more people like them instead of those who offer something for nothing. The public must be patient, the 2012 budget will be the first that can be rightly judged within the context of the Republican controlled House’s influence.

As good as it gets?

$38 billion dollars seems like a lot. Compared to $1.6 trillion, it’s almost nothing. The bigger number is the projected deficit the US government would run in the FY2011 budget, borrowed money, and the smaller number is the number of cuts agreed to this past weekend to avert the so-called partial government shutdown. It’s a bit depressing and a popular conservative sentiment today is that it wasn’t enough and that any representative who votes for it isn’t serious.

They’re completely right on the first count and are ignorant of reality on the second. Republicans are in charge of one third of the portion of government that votes for the budget. Their portion the House of Representatives passed $61 billion in cuts while the Senate and the President wanted none. To many, “compromise” would have been $30.5 billion. For a three headed monster, compromise could be considered $20.3 billion. Under this understanding the Republicans in the House of Representatives should have passed a budget with $300 billion in cuts to get $100, but they’re too honest for that.

It’s easy to understand the sentiment behind not approving the final number which is essentially just as unsustainable as the original budget. But hissing about it is of no use. From reports of the President attempting to make the so-called shutdown as hurtful as possible to the promise to veto any continuing resolution that would fund the Department of Defense for the remaining fiscal year there was no way for the shutdown to do any good politically. And the reason why is because of the $1.6 trillion problem.

That $1.6 trillion in borrowed money buys a lot. And it composes the primary source of income for too many in our country. There are too many out there that have no idea what health care, what groceries, what day care, what anything really costs because they receive ‘benefits’ from the government shielding them from those costs. It doesn’t mean that those costs don’t exist; they are just shifted to the taxpayer with a healthy cut consumed by the bureaucratic class. And the promise to veto military pay by the president was a cynical and calculated attempt to turn the military into another democrat constituency similar to unions, punishing them for not voting dem by large margins like other government funded classes.

Bottom line is the government’s broke and it has been getting worse for a long time. $38 billion isn’t much but it is finally a step in the right direction. And as hard as it is to take, as good as it was going to get at this time. One can only hope that there are enough citizens not dependent on the government left to ensure that this direction is only the first step towards a more productive country where clowns only find work in tents and the ever-more educated voter turns them away when they try to escape. Instead of demanding omnipresent government benefits for a growing percentage of the country we can really help those who need it and make them more dependent on themselves so they can be truly successful and enjoy that success instead of being dependent on the just-enough provided by two-faced politicians.

Random Thoughts – 4/8

The federal case against Barry Bonds is a complete waste of resources. Its only purpose is to serve vapid politicians and political appointees by providing them something they can use as a smoke shield to distract us little people. Bonds may be described as any number of things but none of those matters, whatever it is he did, the supposed perjury will be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and did not do anything that hurt anyone or cover up any federal crime. The justice department should not be allowed to witch hunt public figures for the amusement of the proletariat, no matter how rabid the sheep watching from afar are.

The NFL players association requesting the federal courts to nanny talks between them and the NFL on a new collective bargaining agreement is another complete waste of resources. It’s simply another ploy in the player’s association’s never-ending PR blitz attempting to for the NFL to capitulate to their demands without having to actually negotiate. It is not the federal courts responsibility to referee the negotiations.

All the talk surrounding the Wisconsin “non-partisan” Supreme Court election reminds me of 2004 when John Kerry presumed victory and alleged fraud because of exit polls. Don’t remember that? There was a discrepancy between exit polls (which as statistics are not always accurate and should not be used ever to make definitive points about a population, just make inferences about) and because of statistical polls, Kerry doubted actual return counts. Anyway, the union democrat in the Wisconsin election declared victory after the Associated Press announced unofficial returns showing a lead of about 200 votes. Those totals though did not include all results and upon complete canvassing her opponent was up by about 7,000 votes. Counting chickens before the eggs have hatched and believing what you want to be true doesn’t make it so.

Impending so-called partial government shutdown makes me wonder; what if nobody notices? People that depend on government paychecks (actual employees including the military as government aid recipients will be covered) will certainly notice but what about the rest of us? What happens when Monday morning happens and the sun still rises and the rest of the business world gets to it? No matter the opinion of who’s cheer leading a shutdown (maybe kind-of, me) and who’s trying to kill women (really, this is the kind of crap spouted by democrat legislators) there are facts. The democrat congress did not pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last fall when they should have. The (Republican controlled) House of Representatives passed a FY2011 budget, HR 1, in February. The (democrat controlled) Senate has not passed a FY2011 budget. Most importantly, the US Government is, by any definition, broke. It borrows 40 cents of every dollar spent. This is beyond unsustainable and completely irresponsible. The billions in cuts that were outlined in HR 1 are dwarfed by the deficit outlined in HR 1. Emotional ploys may be therapeutic but ignore reality. There is not enough money to pay for the goodies that vote hungry politicians promised.

Rental Car Review – Chevy Malibu

This week in Maryland I was rented a Chevy Malibu as an intermediate car. I have fond memories of an older Malibu that I rented once in Oregon, the five door version two generations back which my sister and I used to carry us and two mountain bikes up the Oregon coast riding various trails. It was a nice car that felt compact but had lots of room and was reasonably powerful. A few years ago I rented a 6 cylinder version of the previous generation Malibu in Florida which had some serious mechanical issues. It ran but made lots of concerning noises from the engine and transmission and was very lethargic. Reason number 8,789,431 to never ever buy a used rental car, the agency didn’t care when I called, convinced all was well as the car still technically ran and when I returned it the agent checking the car in gave me a “you’re kidding, right?” eye roll when I mentioned the issues.

This rental was the first time I have driven a current generation model. A Silver Ice Metallic 2011 LT1 model with a 2.4L 169HP 4-cylinder engine, 6-Speed automatic transmission, front wheel drive, power moon roof, power windows and locks, 2 stage heated seats, 17 inch wheels, leather trimmed ebony seats and a smidge over 4000 miles on the odometer. As is common of many mid-sized cars, the current Malibu is a larger car than previous generations and this one is so large it seems just about the same size inside as the full size Impala. The dash is large and there is a ton of hard plastic stretching into what could be confused with a dining table in to the front windshield. There is about a one inch sliver of wood and chrome colored plastic loosely applied to the top portion of the dash breaking up the vast expanses of hard black plastic throughout the interior. Like the dash, the driver and passenger seats are big. The exterior is the familiar Malibu shape, the 17 inch chrome wheels and low-profile tires lend it a sporty appearance.

Sporty, though, it is not. Like other full-mid-size cars the Malibu drives like a parade float. The four-banger and 6-speed auto are adequate for getting through the Baltimore-Washington area freeways but the car doesn’t so much as turn, more lurches between lanes. A trait Inherited from dearly departed Pontiac, it is impossible to turn your neck and look at the blind spot corner from the driver’s seat. Brake feel is squishy and pedal travel is long but the Malibu stops just fine. The seats are mostly comfortable, my only complaint is they feel large and are hard to stay centered in. Seat power controls are easy to use which is great for fiddlers like me who can never stop adjusting. The best seat feature by far is the two-stage heaters which work fast. Radio controls are easy to use and duplicates along with cruise control are conveniently located on the steering wheel. One strange quirk noticed was that the moon roof has one touch open but the button must be pressed down for the entirety of the time it takes for it to close. As with most all GM vehicles the sound system was good.

The Malibu isn’t a bad car. But it isn’t very good either. I have driven a Ford Fusion and it’s a much better vehicle. The Nissan Altima and new Hyaundai Sonata are both better looking and the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord both have extremely loyal customers. There’s little wonder why the Malibu’s sales numbers have steadily declined. If I could characterize the Malibu in one word, I would say meh. Its basic transportation and decent enough for someone who is looking for a full-mid-size car and prefers GM.