Archive for February, 2008

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Nader’s running again and I have to say I love the idea

Yippee! Ralph Nader has thrown his metaphorical hat into the presidential ring again. I’m really glad he has.

I used to buy into the Democratic Party bitterness that says Al Gore lost to George W. Bush because Nader diluted the Florida vote Gore would’ve gotten.

Well, DUH. Then I listened to Nader’s take on that historic boondoggle, thought about it awhile, and concluded Nader’s response was right: If Gore had simply been strong enough in the race to win HIS HOME STATE OF TENNESSEE — Florida never would have come into play. In other words, if Al Gore was unable even to carry his home state, that wasn’t Ralph Nader’s fault.

I encourage you to read this coverage of Nader’s newest presidential run and pay special attention to the bottom part of the article. Aw, heck, let me quote the two paragraphs that struck me as noteworthy:

“In an interview with CNN about his presidential bid, Nader suggested that, were the Democratic Party stronger, it would not have to worry about him at all.

“The Democrats ought to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves why they have not been able to landslide the worst Republican Party and the White House and Congress over the last 20 years,” he said.

The real question for Democrats to ask themselves is not: “How will Ralph Nader’s candidacy dilute our votes and help the Republicans this time?”

The real question for Democrats to ask themselves should be something like this: “How can we reach out with plans and possibilities for America that will draw votes to us and bring us victories over the Republicans?”

I mean, really, who requires the American electorate to be either Democratic or Republican anyway? Since when is there no room in America for candidates other than those belonging to the “big two” parties?

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Ah, technology in mattresses can be a wonderful thing, eh?

I’ve been looking around the Internet trying to learn something about beds and mattresses. My wife and I are in need of a new bed. We are trying to decide whether one of the high-tech mattresses like a memory foam mattress or one of those adjustable beds where you shift all the positions and/or firmness settings would be better than a plain old-fashioned bed with a “regular” mattress — whatever “regular” means anymore regarding mattresses.

The one thing I’ve learned so far is that I don’t know as much as I should about mattresses and beds in general. How about you? I’m amazed that one technology says it was created by NASA for astronauts, another suggests it was developed by top-secret European scientists under circumstances not fully explainable. Or whatever.

I discovered, for example, that those memory foam mattresses expect the mattress to “sink” and shape itself to my rather, uh, “portly” body mass. So, why is it that my current worn out mattress has shaped itself to more or less sag into roughly the form my body has pressed into it — and that’s uncomfortable? Will shape-shifting mattress technology actually leave me with a sore back? If not, why not?

Tell me your experiences. Give me some recommendations (no salesmen or dealers, please). Tell us all what your favorite or best-ever mattress has been like.

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How big are you willing to gamble with your home, health, or life?

The biggest crisis most of us face these days is an insurance crisis — whether we realize it or not. Indeed, the whole world of insurance, whether we’re talking whole life insurance, term life insurance, health insurance, or homeowners insurance, is the world’s biggest legalized gambling operation.

Maybe you’ve never thought of insurance as gambling, but that’s exactly what it is: The insurance company is gambling that they’ll make more money off your premiums than they’ll pay out in claims. And, it involves personal gambling, too — namely YOU make a gamble that 1) your insurance needs are covered by the money you’re spending, 2) the company you have insurance with will be reliable, and, 3) you’ll never or rarely ever need to use the insurance you’re paying for.

I recently quit a job as a transcriptionist at a large auto and homeowners insurance company. I spent most of four years transcribing mostly insurance denial letters. I learned this lesson which I want to share with you regarding the gamble you’re making with insurance. Think very carefully about your experiences and those of your family and friends and you’ll realize this is true. Here it is:

Insurance companies exist to make money and they do that primarily by denying or “low balling” insurance claims while raising insurance premiums.

If you think the insurance claims people are working to help you with your insurance loss/claim, you just aren’t paying attention. I cannot count the thousands of letters I sent out which denied claims or offered very minimal claims payouts.

Ah, well, what can you do? If you’re rich enough, you can enjoy the luxury of being self-insured. But for the rest of us, we have to face paying for insurance. Just think it through carefully and buy the best you can. Then work hard and pray hard not to need it.

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Does John McCain qualify constitutionally to be president?

Isn’t that an odd question in my title? Why wouldn’t Sen. John McCain qualify constitutionally to be president?

I had not heard about this, but some have brought up the issue that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone — and have raised the issue that he might not, therefore, qualify to be president under the constitutional requirement that a president must be a “natural-born citizen.” Not so helpfully, the Founding Fathers failed to explain what they meant when they put that phrase into the Constitution.

What an odd idea, however. What part of the Panama Canal Zone being U.S. territory as a U.S. military base would NOT qualify him as “natural born”? That is, his father was serving in the military — so he was born of a mother and father who were citizens living in a U.S. territory. Seems odd the question would even come up. Nevertheless, McCain’s campaign called on former Solicitor General Ted Olson for an opinion on the matter. Olson’s decision wipes out the issue as far as I’m concerned — he indicated it would be a no-brainer even if it got to the Supreme Court.

I can think of a lot of reasons I would not want Sen. John McCain to be president — but his birth in the Panama Canal Zone to parents who were there because his father was in the U.S. military is not one of them.

I could list — and maybe in a future post I will — many reasons I would not want him as president.

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Perfect example of ‘witch hunt’? Look at Clemens-Congress fiasco

What a circus. Just think: We pay all those bozos in Congress to ferret out all the corruption and possible corruption going on in, uh, well, uh — Major League Baseball???

According to a story I was just reading, the major probability of criminal charges against pitcher Roger Clemens for lying under oath to the Congressional committee rest on comments before the committee that “appear to be contradicted by other evidence … or (were) implausible.”

Please understand what that means. It means our elected representatives, and possibly FBI investigators, are scrambling around wasting taxpayers’ money trying to decide whether statements Clemens made which appear to be contradicted or were implausible are worthy of filing criminal charges. That’s like saying something like this:

He may have done or said something that was perjury, … BUT… we don’t know for sure because he may have merely told the truth about something he didn’t understand, … OR … people who contradict what he said may be lying … OR … they may have misunderstood and made mistakes in their testimoney … OR …

Well, you get the idea. Are you confused and angry enough about all this yet? Give me a break. Do you or anyone else reading this REALLY think Roger Clemens is perfect? Is it REALLY worth the time and money being spent on this issue??

Let the guy play baseball or not. As I said long ago in posts on this site, people being paid multiple millions of dollars for playing a game absolutely will, at one time or another, take or do whatever they must to gain an edge. They want to continue playing games and making the big bucks.

Why don’t we let Major League Baseball take care of all this — why must we spend taxpayer money and time to do it??

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the paper and helps pay all these congressional salaries for this idiocy.

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Bush: Nah, there’s no recession, merely an economic ‘slowdown’

Ah, what a comfort. Our president has reassured us that we are NOT headed toward a recession, we’re merely in a “slowdown.”

That makes me think of that old song from the 1920s or ’30s, I’m not sure which, with the line, “You say toMAto and I say toMAWto …” — you can call it a slowdown or you can call it a recession. Fact of the matter is, we’re in trouble economically.

Of course, we’re in this situation thanks to the quality leadership of our fine president of the last eight years. Yes, let’s give him and the fools he’s put in power the credit when it’s due. I’ve spent much of my adult life listening to Republicans bemoan the horrors and troubles of America on either former President Jimmy Carter or former President Bill Clinton. Having gone through a few decades of that, I think I really must say you can credit President George W. Bush and his bunch for designing and building the handbasket we find ourselves nestled in.

Economic slowdown but not a recession? Right. I just heard on CNN that oil has topped $102 a barrel in inter-day trading for the first time ever. Yesterday I heard the cost of bread and milk and other food staples are rocketing upward annually. A couple of weeks ago, we heard all about U.S. automakers tanking and trying to cutback and layoff workers. The ongoing mortgage crisis is dumping several million people out of their homes.

I’m no economist, so thank God we have economists to explain all the details about why this is not a recession. I’d be worried if it weren’t for those gurus.

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers. I’m starting to think I’ll vote for Ralph Nader in November just because I’m disgusted after a lifetime of voting for whatever Republican or Democratic stooge was on the ticket. Blech!!

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Ah, once again — the beauties of winter life in the Missouri Ozarks

Welcome to southwest Missouri, where I live. We’ve had a touch of snow here. We’ve had a lot of rain, a few tornadoes, and a whole many, many tons of ice. What a winter.

I’ve never understood why people flock to this area, even though Branson with all it’s country music entertainment, a lot of wooded Branson real estate, and big amusement parks lurks just down the road from us here in Springfield. Certainly a few years here demonstrates that Interstate 44 runs right along God’s chosen path for slinging ice and sleet from the West Coast up through Oklahoma and Missouri to smack Chicago.

I’ll never understand the lure of the area. Today, speaking again about this really odd winter, it was supposed to warm up to nearly our normal mid-February daily high of 51. Nope. Got up to 42. By the weekend, the weather people are forecasting mid-60s. Then on Sunday night and Monday we’re scheduled for thunder sleet and snow flurries. I’m guessing the plagues of locust and raining frogs aren’t far away.

Nevertheless, we’ve been “Ozarkers” here since 1978, and probably will remain. Go figure.

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Madelaine Albright makes pretty good case for Hillary Clinton

I was just watching the rerun of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. It’s the sanest place to get “news” these days — and I’m only half joking about that.

Anyway, his guest for that episode was former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright. She spoke about a variety of current foreign policy issues, but mostly Stewart kept her talking about the Democratic presidential race. Surprise, surprise: She’s a fervent Clinton supporter.

She actually made me reconsider my intent to vote either for Barack Obama or Ralph Nader. She was very convincing about the experience Clinton has to bring to the task — first as First Lady, presently as a senator. Her point was that we need someone who understands the ins and outs of White House doings, and who understands the ins and outs of Washington and international politics.

She’s almost convinced me. Almost.

How about you? Do you support Hillary Clinton? Would you vote for her for president? Tell us, please.

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Whoopi Goldberg accepts apologies for being left out of Oscars montage

Oh, please, give me a break.

It’s good to know, isn’t it, what with the U.S. economy tanking, people losing their homes and jobs, the war stumbling on in Iraq with U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians suffering and dying, and with the world generally headed downward in the Big Handbasket — good to know that Whoopi Goldberg has graciously accepted apologies from producers of the Academy Awards show.

It seems they left Whoopi, the first African-American to host the Oscars, out of their broadcast montage of past Oscar hosts. The producers insist it was a big mistake. They called her, she accepted their apologies, and now all can get on with their lives.

I propose we make a rule regarding celebrity/entertainment “news”: Once a celebrity/entertainer type makes his/her first $100 million, they cannot be covered in the media ever again.

Simple rule. Easy to enforce, maybe. At the very least, it would free up a lot of media types to cover serious, important stuff.

Yeah, I know, entertainment “news” is big news. We all love to gossip. And when the bright and beautiful or rich and famous provide fodder for our gossip, so much the better.

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.

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Seems like a relatively busy news day, wasn’t it?

The day began like many others for residents of South Florida — until hundreds of thousands of them were plunged into the dark by a power failure. Something to do with an automatic shutdown at a nuclear plant when it detected some technical problems. All as it was supposed to be.

Then Congress went about its usual business of squabbling over the economic costs of the Iraq war, as well as the toll it is taking on our military readiness.

Finally, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tangled on policies and campaign promises. Fightin’ and feudin’ is the name of the presidential game at this point. Who’ll win Ohio and Texas? My best guess would be Obama — in something resembling a landslide.

Ah, well, pretty busy day all in all. Time to call it to an end just about.

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