Sometimes the world doesnt seem like such a bad place after all

40 years ago in Memphis, a peaceful man was shot and killed by sad, small-minded cowards. We certainly have come a long way since then. Nice job, America.

Who woulda thunk it?

If asked over the last 20 years if I am a Democrat or Republican, I'm quick to respond that I'm neither, but that if someone put a gun to my head and made me choose, I'd probably call myself a Republican. I generally vote Republican, even though doing so in New York in a national election is a moot point. I disagree on a great many aspects of what the GOP stands for - especially the conservative right wing of the party. I disagree even more with the Democrat notions that government has a role to play in driving the economy or that government exists to take care of people who should be able to take care of themselves if they had any grasp whatsoever of the concept of personal responsibility.

So, here I am in 2008 about to vote for a Democrat for President.

Why? Because the Republican party put a 72 year-old Bush clone and a woman who is infinitely unqualified to be President on the ticket. Why in the world did McCain choose Sarah Palin? What was he thinking? Was this some kind of play toward his desire to be seen as the "super maverick" of Capitol Hill? Was he trying to prove that he can go against the conventional wisdom, no matter how bad the idea might be? Was he drunk? Did he accidentally fill in the wrong bubble with his number 2 pencil? We'll probably never know.

I can't imagine in any way that he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate because he was convinced she was the best person for the job. If he really thinks that, we need to not only send him to defeat on November 4th, we need to send him to the nearest nursing home on November 5th. I can only conclude that John McCain was more concerned with some kind of image building exercise than he was about having the best possible Vice President at his side.

Guess what, Mr. McCain? You lost one here. You took a fiscally conservative advocate for free markets and small government and turned him in to a vote for a Democrat. Its true. When we go to the polls on November 4 I have no choice. The thought of Sarah Palin being one 72 year-old heartbeat away from the Presidency is just too chilling to do anything but ... gulp ... vote for Obama/Biden.

Posting With Pictures From My iPhone

Here's a cute picture of my wife and my youngest daughter that I
found. Let's see what it looks like in a new post.

Posting From My iPhone

This is a test post via email from my iPhone. Why am I doing this at 3 AM?

Here's a useful guideline for you

As a general rule of thumb in my life, I try not to spend $85 billion on any one item. So far this little nugget of wisdom has served me well.

Sadly, nobody in a position of authority in the US government called me to ask about this. So, the American taxpayers are now collectively on the hook for up to $85 billion to save AIG - the world's largest insurance company.

I'm no Wall Street wizard, but AIG has historically been a very solid company that nobody ever heard of. I guess at some point being immensely profitable and becoming the world's largest insurer with assets of over $1 trillion just isn't enough, so AIG management decided that it would fun to get involved in very risky endeavors like securities backed by sub-prime mortgages. While questionable loans don't strike me as the cornerstone of a strong business plan, turns out the dudes running AIG thought it was a great idea. Naturally, they were DEAD WRONG. I'm pretty sure that any 8th grader could have told them that, but I can only assume that they viewed themselves and AIG as being invincible. When you're invincible, you can do horrifically risky and stupid things without fear of negative consequences. That's so darn convenient, isn't it?

As part of the deal in which we all collectively guarantee that AIG is good for an $85 billion loan, the federal government gets an 80% stake in AIG, gets to veto the payment of dividends to AIG stockholders. I also read that the company's management will be replaced. What I really want to know is what happens to those guys. Do they just carry their stuff out the front door in empty copy paper boxes? Probably not. I'm pretty sure by this time tomorrow the sidewalk in front of AIG headquarters will be littered with shiny golden parachutes left behind by AIG execs who leave the company far wealthier than they were when they arrived there.

So if I have this right, the goal is to find the biggest company you can get your hooks into, run it into the ground, and get paid millions to do it. I'm game. Where do I sign up?

What the hell is a hadron?

The folks at CERN turned on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) today. You might be into particle physics or cosmology or science in general, or you might not. Either way, the realization of something as impressive as the LHC over a 20 year period is damn impressive.

It seems that all that happened today is that a beam was successfully steered around the entire 27 kilometer ring, so there were no collisions to be had. Good thing for us, at least according to the lunatic fringe that insists that the LHC is going to create black holes that will destroy the Earth. There's lots of work to do at CERN before the LHC is ready to actually smash particles into one another at almost the speed of light, so the Earth destroying doesn't commence for another 5 months or so.

The good news if the LHC is safe is that the Earth will go right on spinning while we learn even more about how the Universe works. The even better news if the LHC is in fact a doomsday machine, is that I can stop paying my bills around Christmas, and really live it up until February sometime.

Maybe hockey isn't such a great idea after all ...

Today in international women's hockey, the Slovakian national team beat the national team of Bulgaria by a score of 82 - 0.

You heard me. Eighty-two to nothing. There are only 60 minutes of playing time in a hockey game. Slovakia averaged one goal every 44 seconds. Its entirely possible that the Bulgarian team actually had possession of the puck for less than 1 total minute for the whole game. I have to assume that Bulgaria had at least 3 women on the ice at all times that have been skating for less than 6 months. Its the only way I can think of that you can be beaten so badly in a hockey game.

That's not all. This was the last of 4 games for Bulgaria in what was a qualifying tournament for the 2010 Olympics. They were outscored by a combined total of 192 - 1.

I'm guessing the gals from Bulgaria will be watching the games on TV.

A few words about a great dog

This was originally going to be the first post in a blog/site dedicated to Lexie, the Rhodesian Ridgeback mix that shared our lives and our home for more than 13 years. Sadly, Lexie left us in January of 2007. Since Lexie most definitely deserves at least one page of tribute in cyberspace, here it is (slightly repackaged). We miss you, you crazy dog!


November 1993 - On the shore of Huntington Bay.

Having decided that fish are cool, Irene and I had set up a small 5 gallon tank in our little beach house. Nothing major, just a few nifty little fishies for us to look at now and then. It was Thanksgiving weekend when we took a trip to a local pet shop to get a few more fish and maybe some cool props to put in the tank. Seems harmless enough, right?

This particular pet store did not sell dogs (nor should you patronize any pet store that does!), but that didn't matter on this particular Friday. The girl at the counter had adopted a puppy a few days earlier. She knew pretty quickly by the size of her ears and paws that this dog was going to be much larger than her small apartment could really handle. So, there in the corner by the register, up for adoption, was this 10-12 week old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy lounging happily on some soft blankets in her crate. I noticed her when we walked in, but didn't really give it a second thought since up to that point Irene was pretty adamant about not wanting a dog.

As planned, I was browsing down the "fish stuff" aisle. Little did I know that Irene was hanging out with the puppy - petting, playing and generally making the sounds one tends to make at a baby of any species. As I moved on past the plastic fishtank castles I was confronted by the image of my wife sitting on the floor of the pet shop with this dog in her lap. As soon as I saw them together, I knew that this pup was probably coming home with us. I was right. My wife, heretofore completely opposed to having a dog, was asking me if we could take her home. Who was I to argue? I love dogs, and she certainly was cute.

We loaded up on the stuff that new dog owners tend to load up on, and next thing I know my two-seater sports car was headed back home one occupant (and four legs) over its design capacity.

On the way home, we made a stop in Northport where our new "kid" got to romp around a bit on her leash and listen to everyone talk about how cute she was (hey, pretty much all puppies are cute). As we drove the rest of the way home, we discussed dog names. The girl in the pet shop was calling her Jessie, but we had her pegged as a "Holly". Since Irene didn't think it was right to name the dog after one of her childhood friends, we decided on Ilexa (Ilex being the latin name for the holly plant), which immediately became "Lexie".

The rest, as they say, is history. Well, at least its history in our house.

Oh, and the fish? We never did get any more.