Postulations, Ripostes and Verbalisms

Early Empty Nest

2008-12-31T08:34:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe, but our time with Lucianna is drawing to a close. Almost a full 21 months have elapsed and I haven't written one story regarding her time spent with us. It's not that our time together wasn't without antics, I think it was more out of respect for her and her internest prowess than it was about writable stories. Lucianna's English is way too good to have the double meaning communications we had with Asmira, who by the way is still in country on an education visa living in Cleveland, Ohio. Sheri still corresponds with her pretty regularly. She is doing well, studying to be a dental hygienist, has her own car and a boyfriend!

So, what have I learned about Brazilians during her stay?

For one, when you remove a Brazilian from their climate, their seemable permanent tans fade considerably. In fact, Sheri and I were darker than her this past summer and I made sure she was reminded of it.

Also, the bikini bathing suit originated in Brazil and was (thankfully)imported by the US in the seventies. As a man I never understood the term "Brazilian wax" but now I know. Get one thing straight; it wasn't a penchant for wearing a speedo that enlightened me.

Brazil is a pretty industrious nation. They have found prosperity in oil independence, a model the US could follow.

Brazilians love their soccer. Their biggest rival is Argentina and I had to draw a comparison to anything we have here, it would be like the hatred between the Redskins and the Cowboys. They really do despise the Argentineans as much I despise the Cowboys.

I hope that she has learned something about America while she was here besides our love for football. Sheri and I definately saw a change in her from the young girl she was when she arrived to the independent young woman she is leaving us as. My big fear and I would tell her this repeatedly is that I haven't spoiled her for all men...what with all my "SuperDad" and "SuperHusband" abilities. Able to leap piled toys in a single bound, to paint tall ceilings, to fix what needs fixin and to build what needs building, to clean what needs cleaning, to heat what need heating and to work what needs working, to communicate what needs...(okay I fail that one)... Ha!

Anyway, we love Lucianna and wish her the best in whatever it is she does. She's got a good head on her shoulders and we're confident she'll succeed in life. After 21 months of watching our three gremlins, she STILL says she wants to have lots of her own children. Wow! She is moving in with a friend while she awaits her education visa so she can begin taking college courses at the local college.

As far as the next au pair? Well, Grandma has decided to take over the daily chores of watching Isabel while the two boys are in school. Hopefully that will continue until the summer and we will get a summer only au pair. We've had a extra person living in the house for so long now, its going to seem a little empty.

2008-11-19T07:25:00.002-05:00

How Obama Got Elected

It comes as no surprise (at least to me) the influence of the MSM coverage in the presidential election. The point of the video is NOT that Obama supporters are morons (although the ones in the video certainly are), the point is what actually got through to voters via media coverage or lack thereof. I think the most sincere Obama Supporter in the video is the younger girl with the pink sweater who mentions that maybe she wasn’t as informed as she thought. There may be hope for her, the rest are doomed.

Just for the record I’ve posted the results of the Zogby poll and John Zogby’s defense of said poll. What I find most astonishing and probably one of the worst acts committed by Obama and ignored by the MSM was the fact that he got his start by having his opponents removed from the ballot through the use of lawsuits. The free pass given to the Obama\Biden Campaign was and is absolutely shameful.

57 states, my goodness…

Zogby Poll

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

"We stand by the results our survey work on behalf of John Ziegler, as we stand by all of our work. We reject the notion that this was a push poll because it very simply wasn't. It was a legitimate effort to test the knowledge of voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 election. Push polls are a malicious effort to sway public opinion one way or the other, while message and knowledge testing is quite another effort of public opinion research that is legitimate inquiry and has value in the public square. In this case, the respondents were given a full range of responses and were not pressured or influenced to respond in one way or another. This poll was not designed to hurt anyone, which is obvious as it was conducted after the election. The client is free to draw his own conclusions about the research, as are bloggers and other members of society. But Zogby International is a neutral party in this matter. We were hired to test public opinion on a particular subject and with no ax to grind, that's exactly what we did. We don't have to agree or disagree with the questions, we simply ask them and provide the client with a fair and accurate set of data reflecting public opinion." - John Zogby

Election Day

2008-11-04T13:30:00.001-05:00

People vote their interest. That's what they're supposed to do, but the problem is that a very large number of people aren't competent or far-sighted enough to really understand what is in their best interest. All they can see is today, and whatever issue is of concern at this moment. The potential disastrous consequences that may lie a few days done the road are of little import, because they're crude decision making mechanism isn't sophisticated enough to take them into account. Right now finances are the pervasive concern for a lot of people, and since they're too intellectually lazy to figure out how best to address that problem, they just decide to buy into the notion that stealing some more money from those evil rich people will do the trick.

So once again, we return to the topic of targeting America’s rich. If 2% of the population paying 60% of our country’s taxes is not enough, what is enough…70, 80, 90%? Where does it end? This isn’t new and it certainly isn’t change; its typical liberal economic policy. Its more class warfare, mob rule and punitive measures against the nation’s most productive citizens; citizens who have no means of defending themselves against the will of the vast majority of modern voters who have been trained to believe that they have a right to the earnings of others. Democrats know this and it is the source of their power.

What they can do to 2% of the population, they can easily do to you, and given the opportunity they eventually will. That's why Marx was right when he said that democracy is the road to
socialism.

Bass-Ackwards

2008-10-03T09:27:00.002-04:00

If anyone needed proof that Barack Obama is an empty suit, they only needed to tune into watch the vice-presidential debate. Forget about who won or who lost, Biden has got serious qualifications as does McCain. It was pretty obvious as it was on display last night as was McCain’s last Friday. Palin? She went toe-toe with a 35-year veteran of Washington, who has deep knowledge of the issues. I thought she was relaxed and on offense the entire debate.

Does anyone really care about vice-presidential debates? Does anyone really remember who the veep candidates were for Gore or Dole? Vice presidential candidates do not bring votes to their respective candidates. Palin’s job last night was to ease the minds of conservatives (which she did) and not lose votes for McCain (which she didn’t). Biden needed to not come off as over-bearing or sexist or make any gaffes (which he didn’t).

This leads me back to my original point that Obama is an empty suit. It’s simply a joke that this guy is even the presidential candidate. He has never run a business, has zero foreign policy experience, never been a governor or a mayor, no military experience and no independence. Obama has voted with his party over 95% of the time. That’s not particularly a bad thing because there are mucho republicans that do the same, but McCain isn’t one of them and neither is Biden. So…Biden and McCain are more qualified. Hell, Palin is far more qualified than Obama.

The democratic ticket is as backwards as the tax and spend policies they espouse.

The Complacenist Papers

2008-09-26T08:31:00.004-04:00

I once thought that the American voter was savvy and politically aware, but the inevitable truth is; an enormous number of them have absolutely no idea what they are voting for come November. There's a large contingent of voters who base their opinion and understanding almost entirely on TV ads and past voting habits. As such, there will be millions of voters going to the polls to vote for a D or an R, a black man or a woman, against a Muslim or against Bush (again), without having read a single pamphlet, flyer, book or anything detailing what the candidate is for.

Also, half of the country just won't make it to the polls at all. These are the folks that just don't care. So, for groups one and two I've taken it upon myself to create a new party. They shall now be known as the complacenists. The preamble shall be;

We the people of the Complacenist Party have decided that societies of men are incapable of establishing good government from reflection and choice, that we are forever destined to depend, for our own political constitutions, on accident and force.

Membership is easy and one or more of the following criteria have to be met:

1.If you've ever been pissed because your favorite tv show was preempted by a presidential speech.

2. If the only voting you've ever done involves a phone and an 888 number.

3. The only judges you can think of are either Judy, Roy, Simon, Randy or Paula.

4. The last magazine article you read was from US or People.

5. You have no idea where CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News are on your channel lineup.

6. There is nothing on regular TV on Sunday Mornings from 10 until 12.

7. You have no idea what CSpan is.

8. You use the Internet primarily for shopping, catching up on tv shows or porn.

9. You think the president controls the price of gas.

10. You have no idea who your representatives are.

11. You didn't know there was a state senate.

12. You don't know what states Obama and McCain actually represent.

13. You hurriedly file your taxes so you can get a refund with no regard to what you actually paid.

14. You think the Constitution specifically mentions abortion.

15. You would rather watch a rerun of American Chopper than the local news.

16. You only get the Sunday paper for the coupons.

If you meet any of these criteria, then I advise you to join. Enrollment in the complacenist party can only be done one way; by not voting this November. Your non-vote will send a message to Washington that you won't be just another ignorant voter... you'll just be ignorant.

When Snakes Attack!!

2008-09-17T17:02:00.004-04:00

Call Discovery...Call Animal Planet!!

Found this danger to mankind lurking in the garage waiting to sink its teeth into an unsuspecting victim. It wasn't pretty but after much trepidation, we were able to corner the beast and remove it from the garage. I thought I was going to have to call animal control.

You can really get the idea of the size of the beast from the below.

Patriot Day

2008-09-11T08:37:00.002-04:00

On this the 7th anniversary of "9/11", we celebrate, with pride, what it means to be American. We will not forget those who have lost their lives, and we salute those who even now stand in harm’s way fighting for the ideals of freedom and democracy upon which this nation is founded.

May this day forever us remind that we came together as one to fight an attack on our soil, to save our citizens, and protect our country!

On this Patriot Day, I hope you are as inspired as I by the words of our sixth president John Quincy Adams:

“And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence; she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.... America's glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice”

God Bless America

Diversity

2008-09-05T16:53:00.002-04:00

The other day the Post ran a story about the lack of diversity in the Republican Party. The question they so conveniently chose to ignore was; is diversity a reflection of the party or a reflection of minorities? I tend to believe its the latter.

The truth is the Republican Party opens their arms to all minorities. This is a reality based in fact that literally smacks the left in the face and they choose to ignore said fact over and over. If the Republican Party was not open to minorities why then are Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, Alan Keyes, J. C Watts, Colin Powell and Thomas Sowell (one of the greatest republican columnists) active members? These are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. I challenge any democrat to do the same.

Its actually sickening the way the left treats republican minorities. In brief (because there are actually far more attacks than I care to discuss), they called Condoleeza Rice an Aunt Jemima, the farcical attack on Clarence Thomas and the most recent was when Michael Steele had oreos thrown at him at a debate for Md State Senate. Who, by the way, lost to a crotchety old white guy democrat.

The fact is we have minorities in the republican party, its just we give them positions of power to gain experience. You see, we give the most qualified candidates the job whether its a supreme court justice or secretary of state or Lieutenant Governor. The democrats have fallen for the cult of personality and nominated an inexperienced Senator who spent his short time in Congress not doing the work of the people who elected him but seemed to spend his time running for president.

The only way Obama should be in the White House is if McCain invites him over for dinner.

No Nominees for Me

2008-02-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

If you are as unhappy as I am with republican nominees for president, you need not look any further than the state of Maryland for why. You see, the partisan demagoguery in MD saw it fit to remove its only successful republican governor in 30 years. Yes, I am still reeling from Martin O’Malley winning the governorship of MD.

Despite the fact that the first thing O’Malley did was raise the sales tax 20 percent and raise cigarette taxes (ahem taxes that effect the poorer populations more than any other), something Ehrlich with his democratic legislature was able to hold off from doing do for 4 years, I’m bitter because Ehrlich would have made a fine presidential nominee.

He was an unapologetic Reaganite. He made the Md government smaller, turned a big deficit into a surplus and staved off 7.5 billion in proposed taxes.

He enacted Maryland's first-ever charter schools law, establishing 15 charter schools benefiting more than 3,000 students in just three years

More than 100,000 net new private-sector jobs were created during his time as Governor. Maryland's unemployment rate was one of the lowest in the nation at approximately 4 percent and its welfare rate is at its lowest level since 1962.

His approval ratings never went lower than 50 percent even though he had a hostile legislature, hostile political establishment, and a hostile press.

He had never lost an election during his 20 years as a politician.

He is young and energetic. He has a youthful family and as far as I know, no baggage or skeletons in his closet.

He would have made as good if not better nominee as the four we have now. I would have gladly given him up as the Governor of Maryland had he had presidential aspirations. I guess we’ll never know.

I really feel Republicans have been stung twice by Maryland Democrats, the obvious being O’Malley’s win, the devastating blow for all republicans, was the lost potential of a winning Republican Candidate.

It was a sad day for conservatism when Ehrlich lost the election in 2006; it will be an even sadder day should the 72 year sold McCain win the republican nomination.

Crabs

2007-08-24T05:35:00.000-04:00

In anticipation of the upcoming crabfeast, we decided to hit the water late in the afternoon on this past Friday. By "we", I mean myself, my son Ethan, my buddy Eric and an 18 pack of Miller Lite. Got on the water around 3pm and by 7pm we had over a bushel of crabs and the 18 pack gone.

Now, I've been crabbing the same stretch of water (Nanjemoy Creek) for over 11 years. In those 11 years, I have to say that I've grown somewhat complacent to the rules and regulations that govern boating. For 11 years, I have never seen the police on that creek. I know they're around but for some reason they never seem to venture into Nanjemoy Creek. I've never really understood why because a Natural Resource Police (NRP) Officer could have a banner day on Saturday mornings in July and August because of all the illegal crabbers on the water at that time.

Around 7 pm, as we're getting ready to run one of the lines for the last time, who should happen to roll up into the creek? It's none other than a NRP officer. At this time of the evening, we were the only ones left on the water and by the time we noticed he had us in his sights its was far too late to do anything about the 18 empty beer cans laying on the floor of the boat. He comes up next to us and asks us the obligatory "how you all doing?" the whole time he's sizing up our catch, the boat, my kid, and the 18 empty beer cans.

He asks me how many beers I have had. Unless I wanted to blame half of the empty beer cans on my five year old, I knew he had dead to rights on at least a six pack. So I answered 6 or 7 (more like 8 or 9 but I had to give myself some wiggle room). He asks me to recite the alphabet "a to z" without singing it, which I ace. He then asks me to count backward from 66 to 53. I proudly ace that one as well or at least thought I had aced but I aced it from 66 to 57. In the heat of the nervousness combined with a good buzz I missed the part about counting backward to 53. At that point, I thought he had me. He then makes me do it again to 53 which I this time do as requested.

Thank goodness, I decided to let Ethan come with us because I truly believe he was our saving grace. I mean I had passed the sobriety tests basically and Ethan did have his life jacket on which we always make him wear even if it wasn't the law. But, if this officer felt like being hard on me, he could have taken me in for a breathalyzer which I'm sure I would have failed. In Md a DWI on the water counts as a DWI on your driver's license so I really dodged a bullet on that one.

Here is where I didn't dodge any bullets and the years of complacency finally caught up with me.

Did I have my registration? No
Did I have a fire extinguisher? No (I truly didn't know I needed one on that boat)
Did I have a throwable life preserver? No
Did I have a sound device, i.e. a whistle or air horn? No
Did I have at least two life preservers, one for me and Eric? Technically yes, but one was so ratty that if I had to chose between it and a beach towel to stay afloat I would probably chose the beach towel. So the answer inevitably to the NRP Officer was no.

All told $175.00 worth of tickets and warnings. If I hadn't been drinking, I would have been pretty mad, the fact that I knew I just got off real easy made me want to kiss the officer's shoes after getting a handful of citations.

Good thing Eric didn't bring a 30 pack.

Needless to say, when we crabbed again on Saturday morning, I had all the stuff I was missing the day before and this time; no beer.

For as bad of a year as it is, we still ended up with close to 4 bushels total. Out of the 4, there was at least 1 bushel of number ones (beautiful big crabs).

So Friday marked the end of an era of reckless abandon and complacency on the water. Crabbing, for us, has always been one of the last true free from worry get aways left. We never had to look over our shoulders to see if "the man" was watching us. Crabbing will always be fun but something about it just won't be the same.

Cooper's First Helicopter Ride

2007-06-20T12:12:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday evening Cooper started some seizure activity that would not quit. This seizure activity was highly unusual as the majority of his seizures occur morning time and usually involve some muscle spasms of the right leg. On this night, it began as some tingling in his right hand and progressed upwards causing his speech to be slurred, drooling and then some vomit, all lasting a few minutes. After which he snapped out of it and told us he was fine. This, as he called it, fine state lasted a few minutes then he began to slur his speech again, vomit some more and started to get incoherent.

I called the neurologist on call at Children's Hospital to get his assessment on Cooper's situation and whether we should administer Diastat, an emergency seizure medication to be used for seizure lasting more than 5 minutes. But because Cooper wasn't flailing about having the typical what is known as grand mal seizure, we, including the neurologist, weren't sure whether we should give the medication. He felt our best course of action was to take him to the local ER as Children's Hospital was too far of a drive in his current state.

Thinking it would take too long for an ambulance to arrive; we put him in the car and drove 15 minutes to Civista Hospital in La Plata. An ER Crew of about 6 met us in the parking lot and whisked us into the ER and began administering a series of anti-seizure meds, basically sedating Cooper and shutting down all electrical activity within the brain.

Once they stabilized him they informed us they would transfer him to Children's via helicopter. Then they came back and said due to the storms in the area, the helicopter could not fly and Children's was sending a ground crew to get Cooper. The ambulance (ground crew) arrived after about an hour and began prepping him for transport. Due to the length of the ride and the fact that seizure sufferers can possibly have their airway restricted, they decided to intabate him; whereby they put a tube down his throat and let a ventilator do his breathing.

The ground crew said one of us could ride in the ambulance with Cooper and that they would be leaving in "two minutes". Sheri would ride in the ambulance, I would go home get us some clothes and coffee (it was approximately one am at this point). I left for home, got clothes, food and coffee and started heading for the hospital thinking I needed to get there to help Sheri as they should already be at the hospital or close to it.

About 25 minutes into my drive and still 20 minutes from the hospital, Sheri calls me on my cell and says they are STILL at Civista and they now decided they would use the helicopter to transport him but Sheri would still have to ride in the ambulance as there is not enough room on the helicopter. If they had left when they said they were going to they would have already been there, I was really confused. As it turns out the ambulance crew needed way more than two minutes to prep Cooper for transport and by the time they got him ready the helicopter was available.

About 230, as I'm getting ready to make a left onto Michigan Ave with the hospital in sight, I hear the distinct whirring of a helicopter. I make the turn onto Michigan and pull into the hospital parking lot while I'm watching the helicopter land. I went up to the ER and said I think my son was just brought in by helicopter. They said he was and took me right back to where about 12 people were just beginning to work on Cooper. They immediately assured me he was in no danger and they were prepping him for ICU.

Sheri arrived a half hour or so later just as they were taking Cooper up to radiology for a CT scan. Nothing against Civista in fact all of their ER people were top notch. Dr Brown from Civista even called us Friday to check on Cooper. They just don't have the means to treat children neurologically. There is something definitely reassuring about being back at Children's. I don't know if it's because we spent so much time there or the fact that these folks work with kids all the time and they know what to say to us parents but we feel better when we're there.

They did the CT which came back negative and moved us into the ICU where at Children's it's called the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as opposed to the NICU, for all the preemies and newborns). At around 4:30 am Thursday morning, Sheri and I were able to sit down.

At this point Thursday isn't much more than a blur but I think I can piece it together.

0530 Spinal Tap (now called lumbar puncture or LP I guess they are trying not to scare people with the old term) results: negative
0630 Sheri's mom arrives
0830 EEG tech hooks up for a 30 minute EEG, Results: Cooper is not having seizures
1030 Cooper starts to awake and choke on the breathing tube
1045 Respitory people arrive and remove tube, Cooper is back to sleep
1100 Uncle Will and Aunt Janet arrive bearing much needed food
1300 My folks arrive, Cooper is still asleep due to the heavy sedation
1400 Cooper starts to wake up but is in and out of sleep.
1600 Sheri and her mom go home to get some sleep and to see Ethan and Isabel and relieve Lucianna
1900 Dad leaves to go stay at Aunt Janets
Cooper I believe is awake some and watches some tv ( I really don't remember much that evening. I was starting to drift in and out myself). I remember NOT getting to the cafeteria before it closed and had to eat chicken strips from a vending machine. I think Cooper was awake because I do remember trying to get him to eat some of my chicken.
2230 Sheri comes back to stay the night, my mom stays as well to help Sheri
2300 I leave for home

Friday morning I return and Cooper is awake and very combative about being bed ridden. He keeps telling us he is better and wants to go home. He has an MRI scheduled at 2 pm. They sedate him for the MRI and results come back negative. Cooper didn't awake from his MRI until almost 5pm. At this point they are ready to move him out of the PICU up to the neurology ward on the 4th floor. However, they want to run a 24 hour EEG on him. So before he even wakes up they attach 20 some electrodes to his head and enough wire to power a small city keeping his movements limited.

We get transferred up to the fourth floor about 1830. Once Cooper was settled, Sheri, my mom and my dad leave to go home and see the kids. I will stay with him Friday night. He ate a lot of junk and we watched a lot of junk on tv and he was out by 2200 and me by 2300. We also had a surprise visit, which really brightened Cooper's spirits, by Mrs Zito and Mrs Caroseli from Cooper's school. We had a good night as far as hospital nights go. The alarms, the intrusions by roommates and nurses checking vital were all minimal and Cooper had a good night sleep. Me I slept some, but hospital sleep for me tends to come in blocks, no more than three hours at a time.

It's now Saturday and Sheri, Ethan and my folks get back to the hospital around 1130. Cooper is still hooked to the EEG machine but the Doctors let us know that when that is finished he will be discharged. They came and removed the EEG leads around 1300 and when I was comfortable that he would be discharged, I and Ethan head for home. Cooper was discharged and got home around 1600 Saturday afternoon.

As it turns out, thankfully, all the tests came back negative. No tumor re-growth or signs of hydrocephalous (fluid pressure on the brain). The doctors believe that Cooper's anti-seizure medicine is not at the right level. We have now increased the dosage and basically live on egg shells wondering what may come next.

At this juncture, I start to second guess myself wondering that maybe we should have just let Cooper sleep it off at home Wednesday night. One of the after effects of a seizure is extreme tiredness. We have seen it before from him after a nighttime seizure. He was tired Wednesday evening as it was past his bed time and couple that with a seizure, it's no wonder he became incoherent. I think his body and his brain basically said "I'm tired and I just had a seizure, I'll see you tomorrow."

If these seizures are the worst that has come out of the whole brain tumor ordeal, we consider ourselves pretty lucky.

Sorry to anyone who was aware of Cooper being in the hospital but wasn't aware of the results.

Web Designer

2007-04-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

I have plunged into the realm of website design. Let me know what you think and while you're at it, you may as well go ahead and register:

www.ansrace.org

Global Smarming

2007-04-12T07:49:00.000-04:00

While I think you'd be hard pressed to find many people nowadays who would dispute global warming, the real debate is what effect does man have on said temperature change. Some people would have us believe that if we all cut down on our jet setting across the country or quit powering our mansions with green energy, that it would have some effect on global temperature. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It's been estimated and documented that if we completely stopped using fossil fuels tomorrow we would only reduce global CO2 levels by a scant 23 percent. Some might argue that a 23 percent reduction would be worth it. Maybe, I tend to think that if we stopped using fossil fuels this planet would descend into chaos, in a matter of weeks. Anarchy would reign supreme, tens of millions; perhaps even billions will die in the transformation back to natural man. Deforestation of the planet of biblical proportions will occur, in a matter of a few years, as people choose survival over extinction or green T shirts. Entire regions will become uninhabitable by humans.
Food production will plummet.

Think about it; marginal change is pointless. Massive change would be catastrophic.

The only meaningful efficient substitute for fossil fuels is the environmentalist bane, "nuclear technology". Lets face it folks, solar energy and windmills are feel good science projects, I mean a windmill produces what? Science has had over 30 years to perfect solar and wind power, what's the best they've come up? A windmill that provides enough electricity to power...a windmill.

In conclusion, the argument that we can even do anything rational or effective about man made global warming is a non-starter. The only sane idea to get us away from fossil fuels and start us moving towards a replacement is to use them all up. So I developed this 10 point plan for all of us to adopt to do our part;

1. Leave your lights on, all of them.
2. Only buy SUVS, the bigger the better.
3. Leave your refrigerator open and use it as a reading light
4. Use your oven to provide extra heat.
5. Aim a hairdryer at your thermostat in the summer to keep your house extra cold (Refer to number 4 if you get too cold). NO BLANKETS!!
6. Washers and dryers are to be used for one garment at a time.
7. Get a shower installed that has internet capabilities so you can surf the net or write your blog while you shower.
8. Water your grass, often.
9. a. Get a big house like John and Al.
b. No sharing of limos, get your own.
10. Get a private jet.

Al says the "earth is sick and getting sicker" and many say what can I do to help?

I say show me your license.

Au Pair? Au Contraire!

2007-03-26T11:45:00.000-04:00

Never overestimate the interpretation skills of someone who speaks English as a second language. English, with all its contradictions,
dialects, slang, idioms and nuances, takes way more than 9 months to figure out. Sometimes we, especially me, tend to forget that.

It was kind of funny, back in December we had informed Asmira that we needed to know if she planned on staying for her second year. We needed to know by mid January because if she didn't plan on staying, we needed to start the interview process again. I guess we never stressed the staying "where" part. When my folks were at our house over Christmas, my mother had told me that Asmira told her that she was planning on staying. I had also heard the same from my brother in-law and mother in-law. After nine months of living with someone for whom English was a second language, I had learned that a lot gets lost in translation. So when my family would tell me these things I started asking them, what exactly did you ask her? Did you ask; are you planning on staying for your second year or did you ask; are planning on staying with us for the second year? Anyone who talked to Asmira always forgot the latter half of the question which... is really the most important part. I'm just as guilty. About two weeks before the deadline, I asked her do you plan on staying a second year? She replied I think so, I really like it here. I was so relieved but it was only after I was telling Sheri later that evening that I realized I did the same thing, I didn't ask "where". Fast forward two weeks to the deadline and we're all sitting at the dinner table and I ask again. Asmira, do you plan on staying a second year? She said "Oh yes, I love it here, I don't want to leave, I plan on staying the full two years."

I was relieved for about 15 seconds when it dawned on me that hey idiotself you still have not asked "where". By now, after listening her to rave about how much she loved it "here", I thought the "where" part was pretty moot at this point. I remember thinking "She loves it here, she's not going anywhere". But because it was the deadline I felt I better make sure there were no misunderstandings. I asked do you plan on staying "with us" for your second year? Without hesitation she said "No - I move in with a family in Baltimore for my second year". I knew it!

It's down to the wire now. Asmira officially has 14 days left at our house. It's been a wonderful year for me, Sheri and the kids. We can't say enough about Asmira and the program in general. Sheri and I were disappointed that she decided to complete her second year with a different family. However, we understand that if we were in Bosnia and had an opportunity to live within walking distance of a lifelong friend, we ourselves would probably jump on it as well. Asmira's best friend is in Baltimore and she is moving into a host family down the street from Almira. We can't say we blame her.

Asmira was excited about the move back in January/February, these last few weeks the realization of change has set in. The aforementioned excitement has turned to anxiety as she will be starting over with a new family in a new location with new rules. Sheri and I are confident she will do well.

What have I learned?

1. Bosnians are mentally tough and work hard.
2. Bosnia reminds me of Pa, I would like to visit.
3. I'm far more paternal than I thought even though Asmira is 24 and I'm th...not.
4. By Bosnian standards, I baby my two boys.
5. Not all Muslim women wear veils, in fact when going out; some of them wear very little clothing and a lot of makeup.
6. Bosnians are not confined by time; at least they act that way - an enviable trait for many Americans.
- For Asmira's birthday we bought her a very nice watch because we noticed she didn't have one. As it turns out, in Bosnian Culture, watches are never given as gifts. In fact, it is an insult.
- We gave her an alarm clock when she first got to our house and I don't think it has even been plugged in yet.
7. My family's life was positively influenced by Asmira. I hope we were to her.

We are looking forward to our new au pair that will be at our house on Good Friday. Her name is Lucianna and she is 21 year old from Brazil. She speaks English pretty well and Portuguese is her native language.

Tribute Trends

2007-03-20T08:56:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one to notice a disturbing new trend in death memorials? As if roadside memorials weren't enough, I'm starting to see more and more homage being displayed on rear car windows.

If you haven't seen one of these rolling tombstones yet, trust me you will. I haven't really been keeping track but I would venture to say I have seen no less than 5 different ones over the last year. I really need to keep a camera handy with me because I want to get a picture of one. I was coming out of the Starbucks the other day and tried to take a picture of one on the back of minivan with my camera phone but of course that didn't work. I'll keep trying.

Call me old school but I tend to think the best place to memorialize our loved ones is at a cemetery not on a vehicle. Look, if I'm dead, use your car for what it's meant for and come visit me dammit! Don’t be parading around announcing to a bunch of people I don't know that I'm dead. I mean, nothing says impermanence like a decal plastered on the back of losing investment.

I hereby give authorization to anyone who wants to, that upon my passing they may place the following (using my name of course) on the back of a 1991 Nissan Sentra;
To complete the trifecta of annoyance hang a set of fake testicles from the bumper (talk about having issues) and drive around doing 10 mph under the speed limit.

Guilty

2007-03-08T05:38:00.000-05:00

Is it possible that the MSM could have misled the public anymore on the trial of Scooter Libby? Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to defend Libby; I believe he perjured himself and obstructed justice and should have to do some jail time. I, unlike the left, believe felonious perjury and obstruction are serious crimes no matter what the circumstances, i.e. lies relating to non-crimes (such as this case) or about sex. We are however talking about the Democratic Party, the party that introduced us to "hate crimes" and believe that violence against one minority group warrants you more punishment than violence against another group.

One thing that has to be made perfectly clear is and was made known by the investigation is; Libby was NOT the one to out Valerie Plame as a CIA OP. It was then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. If this is news to you, well you certainly haven't been following the case well enough. If you think that's news, how about this? Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald won't be bringing charges against Armitage. Why? (Hmmm, what's the best way I can put this?)

IT WAS NOT A CRIME!

Do you think you'll hear that interesting tidbit in the news? Don't bet on it.

Color me partisan all you want but here is what I have learned from the 3+ year investigation;

1. Libby lied and obstructed justice into the investigation of how Valerie Plame and her classified job at the CIA was leaked to reporters.

2. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the source of the leak.

3. Armitage will not be charged as the leak does not constitute a crime.

4. Armitage is a real piece of work. He could have nipped this in the bud early on by saying he was the source of the leak. Instead he chose to let Libby twist in the wind and trip himself up to the grand jury. Libby made his bed however and he has to lie in it.

5. The person most responsible for the demise of his wife's CIA career was Joe Wilson. Mr Wilson chose to go public with the false accusation that his report debunked the claims that Iraqis had gone shopping for uranium in Niger and it had been circulated to senior administration officials. He had to know that these officials and reporters were going to question why a retired ambassador to Niger was sent on this mission by the CIA. The answer most certainly pointed to his wife and to divert attention from himself he concocted a conspiracy theory to implicate the President's closest aides. It's sad so many took and still take this buffoon seriously;

Red Flag #1. Wilson had long been a bitter critic of the Bush Administration, writing in such left-wing publications as The Nation that under President Bush, "America has entered one of it periods of historical madness" and had "imperial ambitions."

Red Flag #2. He was affiliated with the pro-Saudi Middle East Institute and he had recently been the keynote speaker for the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a far-Left group that opposed not only the U.S. military intervention in Iraq but also the sanctions and the no-fly zones that protected Iraqi Kurds and Shias from being slaughtered by Saddam.

Red Flag #3. Mr. Wilson has said that he opposed military action in Iraq because he didn't believe Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and he foresaw the possibility of a difficult occupation. In fact, prior to the U.S. invasion, Mr. Wilson told ABC's Dave Marash that if American troops were sent into Iraq, Saddam might "use a biological weapon in a battle that we might have.

Red Flag #4. Mr. Wilson had no apparent background or skill as an investigator. As Mr. Wilson himself acknowledged, his so-called investigation was nothing more than "eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people" at the U.S. embassy in Niger. Based on those conversations, he concluded that "it was highly doubtful that any [sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq] had ever taken place."

So to wrap up, the CIA sends a retired Bush-bashing diplomat with no investigative skills on a mission so sensitive to National Security and no one is supposed to question who directed it? Everyone knew the Iraqis were buying yellowcake but that actually gave creedence to the War in Iraq. Justifying the war in Iraq means more votes for the right and the left will do anything in their power to stop that from happening.

Not so Bright

2007-02-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

Madeline Albright has come out and said that she thinks that Iraq is going to go down in history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy. I guess if I had any doubts about what we were doing in Iraq, Ms Albright has just affirmed that we must be on the right track in Iraq. You see, in my world it was Ms Albright and the Carter Administration whose failed foreign policies got us where we are now. Lest we forget that Madeline Albright served on Carter's National Security Council.

Those that forget history, are bound to repeat it and no matter how many times that gets said, the left just continue to turn a deaf ear to the past. Somehow, liberals have a way of elevating their proven failures to Hollywood status and trotting them out as "experts" in a topic they've completely botched up. Carter in his four years as president, four years that begat the term "misery index", was a foreign policy nightmare. His whole human rights and his unwillingness to use disproportionate measures illustrated the folly of pursuing a policy of understanding in a world replete with dictators and despots. He lectured Americans on the foolishness of their "fear of communism", and the Soviets responded by invading Afghanistan. He tried to appease the mullahs in Iran, and they responded by holding dozens of Americans hostage, releasing them the moment Ronald Reagan was inaugurated (someone not unwilling to use disproportionate measures, just ask Libya). Instead of declaring war on Iran and taking them out, we sat wringing our hands for over a year, lost eight military men in a bungled attempt at a rescue, and kicked perhaps the worst president of the 20th Century out of office in the fall of 1980.

Fast forward to 1993 and the 8 years of foreign policy ineptitude (four of which Madeline Albright served as Secretary of State) that directly resulted in the American slaughter on 9/11. What if the first attack on the World Trade Center had accomplished its goal of bringing down the building and killing thousands? What would our reaction been then? Just because 6 people died we did nothing? How about the USS Cole? What would we have done if the magazine had been breached and killed all aboard? Why didn’t we act? How about the US Embassies? What would we have done if the building had been blown up as intended and killed all US personnel instead of 250 locals?

You want to know what the greatest disaster in American Foreign Policy is? Liberal influence.

The fact that Madeline Albright can sit back and criticize someone else is reprehensible. How soon we forget.

Random thoughts on Superbowl XLI

2007-02-05T08:38:00.000-05:00

I will never eat another Snicker bar, ever!

Rain makes for slippery foot balls. Someone forgot to tell both teams.

Venue should rotate every year to all cities not just ones with domes or warm climates.

How old is Prince? Somehow I surpassed him.

Anyone on Indianapolis' offensive line could have been MVP.

Peyton's hand wringing after his receivers get folded like cardboard is annoying.

Jim Nantz is annoying.

Phil Simms is not.

I liked JB better on Fox.

Blockbuster mouse made me laugh.

Coca Cola and Doritos did not.

Paper, Rock, Scissors can be hazardous to ones health.

Black coaches winning superbowls is a trend I can live with.

183 days until training camp.

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!

Ah Leah!

2007-02-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

Now there's a song you don't hear on the radio everyday or every decade for that matter. Say what you want about the "jack " music format but they do play a wide variety. You're certainly not going to hear Donnie Iris on DC101 or the classic rock station 94.7.

Back in the day, specifically my Washington Park Ice Rink Day, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers had a couple of big hits, well at least on Pittsburgh Radio; Ah Leah!, Love is like a rock, My Girl and the criminally ignored and personal favorite Sweet Merrilee.

Turns out Donnie is still in the Pittsburgh area, still tours, got himself a new album and a website.

Check it out here (for nostalgic value I might just get myself a shirt):

http://www.donnieiris.com

Start Running

2007-01-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

And that goes for me as well. I've been doing a weight training regimen that emphasizes squats and dead lifts, thus my running has fallen to the wayside.

Forget about the aesthetic benefits of running and concentrate on trying to find the spiritual side of running, almost like Zen running or something. It's kind of a hard thing to envision until you've actually experienced it and you won't know you've experienced it until you find yourself being drawn to it. This attraction is what will become your motivation. You have to trust that it is there, because you're certainly not going to feel it for awhile, when you're dragging yourself out for a run and your shins feel like they'll explode and you think your quads could double as banjo strings. It's more about freeing yourself from your surroundings and being able to focus on where your mind's going. Running not only is capable of clearing your mind at the end of a day, but I think it assists is problem solving, goal attainment (as far as where you want to be and what direction to take to get there), and a variety of benefits only obtained by reaching into the depths of your mind where only running can take you.

You don't have to believe all that but once you've been there, running (and exercise in general) will become as much a part of your life as waking up in the morning.

Here is what the run schedule for spring is looking like;

April 21, 2007 - 9:00 am - Run For Hospice 10k/5K - Leonardtown, Md
www.runforhospice.org

Great local race, I like it because: 1) its on a Saturday and 2) starts at 9:00.

May 6, 2007 - 8:00 am - Bay Bridge Run 10k - Sandy Point Park
www.annapolisstriders.org

One must register early for this one as it is usually closed by the end of March/beginning of April.

I like all the Annapolis Striders Races as they always serve beer after the race. If you've never run 6 miles or 10 miles and then downed a couple of beers all before 10 am, you're really missing out.

June 3, 2007 - 8:30 am - ANS 10k & 5k Run\Walk - La Plata Md
Registration details and link to website to follow.

I expect everyone within a 100 mile radius of La Plata to register for this one as Sheri and I are the Co-Chairs for the event. Proceeds from the race go to the building of new athletic fields as we currently have none.

Last year's event brought out 100 participants to run the 5k course and corporate contributions netted $13,000 to the school. We hope that with the success of last year's event and the addition of the 10k that we can beat those numbers.

Sandy "Burglar" (name is almost cliche at this point)

2007-01-10T06:59:00.000-05:00

So you're former President Clinton's National Security Advisor and you're called before the 9/11 Commission to testify. What do you do?

Do you go the National Archives to refresh your memory and maybe get rid of some of those embarrassing non-job related emails you were sending around to your colleagues? I seriously doubt it. It wasn't like his title was assistant to the regional Security Advisor or Secretary of the Security to the national advisor, it was NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR.

So just what was Sandy Berger removing from the Archives? If you're up on the story, you'd know that several Archive employees were suspicious of Berger removing documents and it was only after witnessing him stealing did they initiate an investigation; an investigation that caught him hiding documents under a construction trailer. My question is what was it and how much did he actually remove before they even started the investigation? What was his motivation? Common sense would indicate to me he was removing items that may have been damaging to himself and the Clinton Administration. Am I too partisan to see that Berger's actions were inconsequential to the 9/11 Commission? Does anyone actually believe the pilfered documents were no big deal? Didn't his actions compromise national security?

This is the kind of stuff movies are made of. Someone from the archives should have called Bob Woodward at the Post. I'm sure he would have exposed this for the egregious abuse of power it was.

Yeah right.

Never Admit Defeat

2007-01-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

Your president is lying to you
This war is illegal
You cannot win this war

What's the first thing that comes to mind? Sound familiar? Probably does, but I wonder if it's because you recognized the mantra that was spouted at American GIs by the infamous broadcaster Tokyo Rose during WWII. Perhaps, but more likely it is familiar because it's what we see and hear in the news media everyday. Isn’t this the message delivered by the mouthpieces of the Democratic Party? Granted they preface their message with a "we support our troops" but then belie that statement by saying;

Our president is lying to us
This war is illegal
We cannot win this war.

I'm always left wondering how people continue to say we are "losing the War in Iraq. From a militaristic standpoint, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, are our cities be taken over by the enemy, are our bases being taken over and occupied, are we losing more men than they? No, not even close.

General Patton once said "You're never beaten until you admit it." No war is ever won by killing every member of the enemy. Wars are won by destroying your enemy's will to fight. How can we do this when almost every major news outlet and most democrats are out "Tokyo Rosing" the war in Iraq wanting us to admit defeat?

I thought the main objectives of going into Iraq were;

1. Impose our will in the region to find out once and for all if Iraq had WMDs. Mission accomplished.

2. Depose an evil egomaniac who wanted to control the entire region and threatened our way of life. Mission accomplished (if you don’t believe Saddam threatened our way of life, maybe you’d enjoy driving some overpriced hybrid to the grocery store to get $10 loaf of bread or $15 gallon of milk while our economy would slip into the worst recession we probably ever would see.)

3. Instill a western style democracy much like we did in post WWII Europe, a modern day Marshall Plan if you will. The idea was\is; that western style freedom, once rooted, would be the cure-all for 30 years of Middle East Mayhem. Mission Accomplished? Not even close.

No one ever said number 3 would be easy or occur in a short period of time. Somehow Americans forgot, even know that it was said repeatedly, that the liberation of Iraq would be a long arduous journey (how liberals can be against liberation is beyond logic but that is for another blog). Think about all the places we have intervened militarily, last I checked we were still in Japan, South Korea, Germany, all over the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Cuba, for crying out loud.

To leave Iraq now means the modern day Tokyo Roses have won, American and Iraqi lives lost were in vain, and anyone who would seek to do harm to the United States would have a free pass to inflict mayhem upon us.

Am I Missing Something?

2006-12-29T06:42:00.000-05:00

I received this in an email and liked it so much I thought I would post it. Pretty good stuff;

The Democrats promised "A New Direction For America"

The stock market is at a new all-time high and America's 401K's are
back.
A new direction from there means, what?

Unemployment is at 25 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Oil prices are plummeting.
A new direction from there means, what?

Taxes are at 20 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Federal tax revenues are at all-time highs.
A new direction from there means, what?

The Federal deficit is down almost 50%, just as predicted over last
year.
A new direction from there means. what?

Home valuations are up 200% over the past 3.5 years.
A new direction from there means, what?

Inflation is in check, hovering at 20 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Not a single terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11/01.
A new direction from there means, what?

Osama bin Laden is living under a rock in a dark cave, having not surfaced in years, if he's alive at all, while 95% of Al Queda's top dogs are either dead or in custody, cooperating with US Intel.

A new direction from there means, what?

Several major terrorist attacks already thwarted by US and British Intel,including the recent planned attack involving 10 Jumbo Jets being exploded in mid-air over major US cities in order to celebrate the anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks.

A new direction from there means, what?

Just as President Bush foretold us on a number of occasions, Iraq was to be made "ground zero" for the war on terrorism -- and just as President Bush said they would, terrorist cells from all over the region are arriving from the shadows of their hiding places and flooding into Iraq in order to get their faces blown off by US Marines rather than boarding planes and heading to the United States to wage war on us here.

A new direction from there means, what?

Now let me see, do I have this right? I can expect:

The economy to go South

Illegals to go North

Taxes to go Up

Employment to go Down

Terrorism to come In

Tax breaks to go Out

Social Security to go Away

Health Care to go the same way gas prices have gone

But what the heck!

I can gain comfort by knowing that Nancy P, Hillory C, John K, Edward K,Howard D, Harry R and Obama have worked hard to create a comprehensive National Security Plan, Health Care Plan, Immigration Reform Plan, Gay Rights Plan,Same Sex Marriage Plan, Abortion On Demand Plan, Tolerance of Everyone and Everything Plan, How to Return all Troops to the U.S. in The Next Six Months Plan,A Get Tough Plan, adapted from the French Plan by the same name and a How Everyone Can Become as Wealthy as We Are Plan.

I forgot the No More Katrina Storm Plan.

Now I know why I feel good after the elections. I am going to be able to sleep so much better at nights knowing these dedicated politicians are thinking of me and my welfare.

Smoking Cessation?

2006-12-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

Gunther (taking a drag off of Chandler's cigarette): "Oh, Dark Mother...once again I suckle at your smoky teat."

Tobacco and I have had a history together, 24+ years to be exact. That’s right Mom, I was using tobacco products even in high school. The Topol Smoker’s Tooth Polish I was using at the time should have been a hint but I’m glad you didn’t pick up on it (love you Ma). That’s how stupid of teenager I was, I would see those Topol commercials and think “Jesus, if my folks see how brown my teeth are getting from smoking, I’ll be busted for sure”. Never mind that I was probably only smoking like 3 cigarettes a day but when that guy on commercial would blow into that paper, it looked like friggin mud, man! Well, I just couldn’t be having brown teeth, Mom and Dad would just know for sure I was smoking. So what do I decide to do? I’m going to buy and brush my teeth with toothpaste specifically designed for smokers, genius, sheer genius.

It’s been two and half years since I quit smoking and a year and a since I quit chewing. Here is my not so orthodox method of quitting:

Start exercising (pretty orthodox start). It was just dumb luck that I fell into running. We had been to Killington skiing in 1997 for a week and my legs were so sore on the second day that I swore I would never let me legs slow me down like that again, Ever! I started using a treadmill and before long, pounds were dropping and miles were accumulating. Seven years later after races too numerous to count and the miles by the thousands, I can recommend shoes, I know about mid-sole and bounce and over pronation and under pronation, I know every bone in the foot, I know what can cause plantar fascitis, I know about the periformis muscle and knees and ACLs and MCls but no matter what you know or how much you know or how much you think you know, somehow people just can’t take you seriously when with one hand you extol the health benefits of running while on the other hand you are waving a cigarette around. That’s right, I’d finish up a ten mile run, go right to the car and light up a smoke, and I did that for years.

Here is where things get a little sketchy but hey it’s my method, I’m just telling you what worked for me. I used to give a smoker a ride home from work. Her brand of choice was Virginia Slim Menthols. Being out of smokes one day, I had to bum one from her. Now, I was smoking Marlboros at the time but in a case of desperation, beggars can’t be choosers. It was nasty, I was puffing on this thing and I said if I had to smoke these effing things everyday, I would quit altogether. Ding! (Cue the light bulb here) I thought, this might not be such a bad idea. One pack of those damn things and I’ll quit for sure. (Don’t forget I’m the guy who was using Topol to avoid getting caught smoking.)

After a year of this method and the realization that a Virginia Slim Menthol is a pretty damn good cigarette, the humility I was putting myself through had to stop.
Yes, in my zeal to quit smoking, this became my brand of choice. I chose to smoke what is undeniably the most effeminate of all cigarettes. I’m pretty comfortable in my masculinity but even this was pushing the limit. I always expected the cashier look at me and sarcastically say “you’ve come a long way, baby” after I bought a pack. I kind of wish someone would have because I probably would have quit right on the spot or dropped dead from the sheer magnitude of the embarrassment.

In April 2004, I stopped smoking completely. I didn’t stop tobacco mind you; I simply traded smoking for chewing tobacco. For some reason, I thought quitting chewing would be easier - Wrong! The nice thing about my smoking days were 1) I never smoked in the house and 2) I never smoked at work. Other than the chick I gave rides home to, no one at my work even knew I was a smoker. Chewing on the other hand, I would do that no matter where I was i.e. at home sitting in the recliner, sitting at my desk at work, sitting in a tree stand - all the places I would never dream to smoke at. When I started chewing, I told Sheri I would only do it for one year. Thankfully (although at the time I wasn’t very grateful) she held me to it and told me it was now April 2005 and it was time to quit. So I did, cold turkey, it was a bitch but somehow I made it through.

Skoal has all kinds of great flavors now like cherry, berry blend, peach, apple, and vanilla. I hate to think that if they had those flavors when I was chewing, I may not have quit when I did. While these new flavors sound tantalizing to me, I promised Sheri that I would only take up chewing again when Skoal comes up with “Swedish Fish” flavor. There will be no stopping me then.

Children's Hospital Campaign

2006-12-13T07:11:00.000-05:00

No matter how bad you think things are, remember, there's always someone else who has it worse.

My man Cooper was diagnosed with a brain tumor, a choroid plexus papilloma in medical terms, in January 2001 when he was around 7 months old. At that time, the tumor was the size of a grapefruit. Dr Cogen at Children's National Medical Center performed three surgeries to fully remove the tumor and one surgery for a subdural hematoma from January 2001 until June 2001. He had a residual bone defect that required a cranioplasty (a titanium plate). Dr Carson of Johns Hopkins performed the cranioplasty in March of 2004.

Currently, Dr Packer who is mentioned in the article below is Cooper’s neurologist and we see him about once a year. In fact we just saw him this past Monday. Cooper started having leg convulsions (seizures) about a year ago and Dr Packer is treating these with medication. The seizures usually occur in the early morning hours and last about a minute. Ethan will come in and tell us that Cooper is having “Shaky Leg”. We’ll go in and sit with him for the duration after which he usually goes right back to sleep. If this is the worst thing that comes out of the whole ordeal, well we’ll take that.

The great news is that his MRIs keep looking better and better. His brain is growing, no signs of hydrocephalous (water build up that would require a shunt which for a time we thought he was going to have to have until we started seeing Dr Carson at Johns Hopkins) and no sign of tumor re-growth.

The article below reminds me how lucky we are. I sat and cried at my desk this morning when I thought about what this family has to go through. How can life be so unfair?

The second link is straight to the Children’s Hospital Foundation where you could make a donation. You can make a donation in honor of Cooper but you don’t have to, just making a donation would be honor enough.

Washington Post Article

Make a Donation

Who Knew?

2006-12-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

I bet you didn't know that liberal political strategists have been reading my blog and stealing my ideas. I was reading an article in the Post the other day and it was talking about this 100 hour agenda. Have you heard of this? It goes something like this (from the article by Jeffrey Birnbaum-Washington Post Staff Writer);

"The effort they discussed was reminiscent of the elaborate business-backed lobbying campaign 12 years ago that pushed the "Contract With America," which was the then-Republican majority's legislative agenda. Conservative groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Christian Coalition banded together then to lobby the House to pass the GOP's 10-part program.

Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future, said that approval of the Hundred Hours agenda would also help the public better understand what the incoming Democratic majority stands for. "We are still too undefined," he said, and the Hundred Hours agenda "begins that process" of redefinition."

Hmm, sounds vaguely familiar. I guess they figure now is the time to tell us where they stand on the hard issues, we know where they fall on all the unimportant "feel good" issues that won them the election. Tell us what are you going to do about Social Security, Medicare, Immigration, health insurance costs, the War, our reliance on foreign oil, terrorism. You retook Congressional Power based on anti-republican backlash, now tell us you have a direction for America. Sad truth is they have no direction, they are making it up as they go.

The critical difference between the CWA and this 100 hour agenda is the republicans had a plan and used it to get elected. The 100 hour agenda, is more like "okay, we got elected, what do we do now?"

When the major organizers are Americans United, USAction, labor unions led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Center for American Progress and several women's organizations, I suspect we'll see even more special interest rule than less.

Cease and Desist Orders for December 2006

2006-12-04T12:04:00.000-05:00

1. Dear Lexus Automobiles,

Newsflash: People do not buy their spouses cars for Christmas. Please stop pretending they do. Every year around this time we get subjected to your ad campaigns. If you insist on continuing with these commercials, at least have the decency to use a different age group as examples of people who do and please put them in front of multi-million dollar mansions instead of modest income homes. At least make it more realistic, have the wife say something like "you know I don't like that color" or "I told you I wanted a sunroof".

I believe your target customer is someone who can't afford to buy their spouse a Lexus for Christmas but wants to think they are in a class of customer who actually can. Speaks volumes of the demographic you are trying to reach.

I ask the three Lexus owners I know if their cars happened to be a Christmas gift from their spouse, they all said no - go figure.

2. Dear Wash FM 97.1,

You really don't have to switch to the all Christmas Song format two weeks before Thanksgiving. That’s just a tad bit early don't you think? Not that your regular format is any more appealing to me but unfortunately I can’t tell my radio what stations to ignore when I press scan.

3. Dear Starbucks,

Please remove all Starbucks Kiosks from Safeway Grocery Stores. Not one of them makes the coffee like they are supposed to. It is always weak and taste like friggin Maxwell House brewed at 7-11. They are continually out of something, whether its cups, lids, syrup, etc. I've actually been to a Safeway Starbucks and they were out of coffee, that's right coffee. How can a place who's sole business is coffee run out of their main product? It's because they don't care.

They continually run your good name into the ground.

Miserably Senti"mental"

2006-11-30T05:41:00.000-05:00

I hate having a cold. As if living with me under normal circumstances weren't hard enough, I become even more intolerable when I have a cold. When mothers are sick, they must take care of themselves and still take care of the other family members. I, on the other hand, can barely muster the will to make myself a sandwich let alone make someone else's meals. Also, having young children and being sick doesn't bode well together either; you know with the whole yelling, screaming, the temper tantrums, the whining, and the crying. It’s a good thing it's only me that acts that way because I don't think Sheri could tolerate such behavior from the kids.

My 20th Class Reunion from Trinity High School was held this past Saturday. Sheri and I were in attendance along with about 75 other classmates and their significant others. Pretty pathetic turnout considering we had like 375 in the class but it seemed as though there were some new faces there that hadn't been at the past reunions.

Somehow there has to be a better way, I got so caught up in talking to some people and by the time I got "down with O.P.P. (yeah you know me!)", I missed talking to others entirely. This was probably a blessing in disguise because of the many beer inspired conservations late into the evening were just a mixture of politics and "I love yous". Suddenly, living 300 miles from Washington just doesn't feel far enough.

Thanks to the Reunion Committee for putting it all together and thanks to all my 1986 classmates for the great memories. Here's to another healthful and happy five years.

It's sappy as hell, hippy-esh, idealistic, unrealistic and a bit silly and anyone who isn't touched by it, by just a glimpse of how it could be, may need a...

HUG. (click me)

HIgher Edumacation

2006-11-22T07:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I was having a nice discussion about the costs of college education with a fellow Marylander who was ever so grateful that her man won and mine didn’t. Among other things, she was ecstatic that her daughter's education expenses were going to decrease. Rather than telling her that it would be a cold day in hell before she would see any decreases in education costs I went into my NOT so widely accepted view that we have made getting a college education far too easy in this country, that some people just aren't destined to be college graduates. Not trying to be elitist or the ultimate arbiter of who gets to go to college and who doesn't but is it any wonder we have moved from a manufacturing economy to that of a service economy? Is it any wonder, the construction industry is dominated by immigrants, illegal and legal? We as Americans feel that because we have a college education, we are above such vocations and we should earn more simply because we went to college. College educations have become so standard that to have a competitive edge; one must stay in school and get a masters.

Puzzled and confused that anyone could actually be anti-college education (I'm not anti-education, just pro free market), I tried my best to impart to her that a college education is an investment, anything that seeks to devalue that investment is bad. I expounded into a bad analogy between a college education and the fact that she had just bought a new BMW and it went something like this; Even though cars are a losing investment, let’s analogously pretend for a moment they are not. You work your tail off, save your money, and sacrifice all superficial expenses to buy a brand new BMW Z3 Roadster. You're not like the rich folks driving around BMWs; no one gave it to you or paid for it- no you had to take the seven year plan of scrimping and saving to have a car that you always dreamed about. You take complete satisfaction in knowing you did it yourself with no help from anyone. It also doesn't hurt that the car has got a high resale value after 5 years either. Life is good. A year later Congress passes a law that will give low interest bearing loans to people who want to buy BMWs. All of sudden, more people are buying BMWs just like yours and the resale value has now dropped a bit. No worries, right? The next year, Congress passes a law making the interest paid on the low interest loans tax deductible. BMW sales are through the roof, every parking lot you pull into has a BMW sitting in it. Now your resale value is plummeting and you're thinking, wait a minute I worked my butt off for my car, now they practically give them away. Now, BMW is always lobbying Congress to make it easier for people to buy their cars cause they know its a can't lose situation for them. The following year Congress decides to let anyone who buys or owns a BMW to deduct the cost of gas. Who wouldn't go for that? You'd be a fool not to buy a BMW. They're everywhere, hell the guy down the street that waits tables at Outback is driving a BMW for crying out loud. And although you enjoy the fruits of deducting your gas, it doesn't make up for the fact that your car after five years is now worthless.

Folks, higher education is a privilege not a right. We've made it so easy that we stripped the very competitive advantage that we so sought to obtain by going to college in the first place. The long and short of it is that what used to be a college-degree premium is turning into a graduate-degree premium and the easier we make it to obtain only reinforces that point.

Is it worth it? You decide.

Great Moments in Parenting

2006-11-20T06:32:00.000-05:00

Last night, a school night just like any other school night I was putting the two boys to bed while Sheri tended to Isabel. As is the normal routine I got them in their pajamas and sent them off to the bathroom to do their business (what I was doing during this time I’m not really sure of but I can tell you what I will be doing from now on – keep reading). Anyway, the boys sleep in the same room with two single beds pushed together. At bed time, each boy lay in his own bed and I lie in the middle for about five minutes to settle them down. This occurs so much so that there are three pillows in the beds, one for each of us. Now in my mind’s eye I just can’t see that third pillow and where it was exactly when the lights were turned out. I crawled up into bed and instinctively grabbed the third pillow, curled up and let the weight of the day release from body. (Cue the needle scratch about right here). As I lay my head on the pillow l felt something crusty against my cheek and I’m like what the heck, is this some residual laundry detergent or something? I now feel the crust sloughing off against my face and I turn my head and smell the pillow. Whoa!! Moses smell the Roses what on God’s green earth is that?! I jump up, turn the light on and see that one of the boys puked (not a lot - about the size of a head – my head to be exact) sometime between 8:30pm and 7:00am the night before and now it’s just a stinky dried crusty mess on the pillowcase. Of course I did what any self respecting father would do – I freaked out, almost causing myself to vomit in the process. Sheri had to replace the pillowcase while I pressure washed the side of my head. Neither boy would own up to the puke. How can you puke and one not know it or two puke and then go back to sleep?

From now on, I’m implementing a 12 point inspection plan before lying down.

Until Then

2006-11-14T07:33:00.000-05:00

I meant to get this out over Veteran's Day but it just didn't happen. Its along the lines of the "if I die before you wake" thing I sent out a couple of weeks ago. I like this one better, its longer and the music is more somber. Its a powerful reminder of the men and women who put their lives on the line for the rest of us everyday.

God Bless our troops and God Bless America.

Until Then

The file is like 5.5 megs or something so it may take awhile to download.

Election Day Rant

2006-11-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Politics to me are a sport and by all means, I want my team to win. The Republicans have let the Democrats take control of this election and chances are we are going to lose. Here is an armchair quarterback synopsis of where the republican leadership has failed;

They've failed to accentuate the positive and allow Iraq to cast a total blackout over domestic issues.

They've allowed the Democrats to convince 80% of the country that Republicans totally banned all Stem cell research when nothing is further from the truth.

They've allowed Democrats to paint us as wire tapping fools listening to them talk on their phones every night instead of what really is happening intercepting foreign calls that use trip words. All the while, democrats screaming about the Patriot Act when not one case of anyone's rights being trampled has been brought up.

They've allowed Gitmo to be painted as a Yankee version of a Nazi concentration camp by democrats.

They've continued to play nice with the likes of Kennedy, Pelosi, Reid, and Kerry knowing full well there was no way in hell they would play nice with you ever.

They've failed to properly put the spot light on the leaders of the Democrats Pelosi, Reid and Dean and show what life is going to be like under them and what kind of people they really are.

It is inexcusable that the RNC allowed uncontested races, Steny Hoyer in particular. Its inexcusable they let Harris waste a House seat to try for an unwinnable Senate seat, it is inexcusable that a hack like Cardin is even close to Steele, it is inexcusable that the name O'Malley doesn't cause Maryland Residents to grab their wallets out of fear.

It is inexecusable that the Republican leadership has ventured so far away from the Contract with America of 1994. This was our bread and butter, a committment to running a party of principle. The contract was most appealing because it spoke to the people who wanted to be left alone and run their own lives, a very large coalition of people by the way. A governing majority if you will.

It is inexecusable on the part of the democrats that in this very winnable midterm elections, they offer up nothing even remotely similar to the accountability found within the contract with America. All they had to do was come out and say; "here are the ten or so things we plan to do in our first year and if we don't deliver, fire us". It would be a massacre. Its much easier to say "vote for me, I'm not a republican" than to actually make a promise and than deliver on it. What a novel concept in politics.

"20 Years Now...

2006-11-02T08:55:00.000-05:00

where'd they'd go
20 years now
I don't know
Sit and wonder sometimes
Where they've gone."

Milestones come and milestones go but if there was ever a gateway to mid-life, would it not be the 20 year high school reunion? What makes the 20th stand apart? Think about it;

a) This is the first reunion in which I have been out of high school more years than the my high school graduation age.

b) This is the last reunion that I will be in my thirties.

c) At the next reunion, the majority of my classmates will be done having children

d) At the next reunion, some of my classmates may be grandparents.

e) At the next reunion, DVE will be playing modern music (yeah right! More on this in a moment).

Is it some type of cruel irony that makes our reunions the weekend following Thanksgiving? I realize the reunion committee is trying to get maximum attendance by holding it then, but if you're one of those people that feel like they need to slim down before the reunion then your Thanksgiving is effed, isn't it? You either drive yourself nuts by not eating all that good food or you over indulge with everyone else and feel like a fat bastard. Needless to say, two days prior to seeing people you haven't seen in a long long time. If you take the not eating route, you actually get screwed twice because after the reunion you're wondering why you sacrificed your Thanksgiving for all those other fat bastards that you haven't seen in a long long time.

WDVE was playing Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne when I left in 1986 and they're still playing Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne 20 years later. I feel like I'm in a musical time warp when I reach Morgantown and can start to pick up DVE. How funny is it to have the car radio on scan and hear "Bang your head, metal health'll drive you mad!"? It wasn't like it was "Metal Monday" or some other lame radio station crap , it was a Friday night. Its like they're still using their 1980s playlist. Just for fun, I thought I tune to 105.9 WAMO and see if they were playing Grand Master Flash or something.

My oldest son had to inquire "Dad, why do they say bang your head"? I said Cooper, your daddy and the rest of the 80s teenagers were the last segment of a generation that believed that world didn't revolve around them. Their problems, no matter how serious, were nothing in compared to the problems of the rest of world. Banging one's heads was simply a symbolic gesture of said stifled frustration. I went on to tell him that we didn't believe in all that "woe is me" teenage angst crap . We went to school when teachers like Mudry or Dufalla would paddle your ass if you looked at them wrong. And you sure as hell weren't going to go home and tell your folks about it because then you'd get it again. Despite all your best efforts to the contrary, the schools were going to educate you. They didn't care if they flunked your dumbass three times over, you either learned or you dropped out, self esteem be damned.

School and life in general is a competition son, awards shouldn't be given for coming in last. We didn't cry about it and we sure as hell weren't going to shoot up the school over it either. You didn't like something, you got over it. You see, we had problems but so did the whole effing world. Hell, our schools still had bomb fall out shelters, we thought the USSR was going to nuke our asses and destroy the world thirty times over, we thought we could get AIDS from a handshake, we just knew the ozone layer would be depleted and we all die of skin cancer and we would have to move south to avoid the ice age that would cover half of North America in ice.

It was at that point I realized I had lost my audience as Cooper had donned his headphones and was intently watching SpongeBob. I should know better than to overanalyze a situation and rant to a six year old.

If you haven't been up to the Trinity Point Shopping Plaza, you really owe it to yourself to get over there and test your driving prowess. You see, when they planned that parking lot they used this high tech computer software program that actually mapped the random routes of 10 year olds driving bumper cars to use as a template for their parking lot. First you spin the steering wheel hard to the right, then back to left then right, "watch out for that car!". If I only had one of those big black cushions mounted in the middle of the steering wheel, I think I would've purposely taken someone out.

V.R.W.C.

2006-11-01T07:19:00.000-05:00

Reverend Jim: "Hey, Alex, you know the really great thing about television? If something important happens, anywhere in the world, night or day, you can always change the channel."

As a member of the vast right wing conspiracy I often get criticized for taking all of my information from the Fox News Channel, the supposed mouthpiece for the Bush Administration. Truth is, I rarely watch it anymore. I'm not going to debate that Fox is in fact, conservative but why, anathema to liberals, is Fox News and conservative talk for that matter so successful? Fox News currently leads the cable news market, earning higher points ratings than its chief competitors CNN and MSNBC combined by average viewer ship. In July 2006, Fox had the 55 top rated episode telecasts on cable news. The first non-Fox show to appear on the list was number 56, Larry King Live. In essence, the Fox Shows kick the crap out of CNN and MSNBC on a nightly basis.

The reason Fox News and conservative talk radio is so successful is not because it doesn't have opposing competition in the liberal area, it's successful simply because it exists. When your major news outlets, papers, TV shows, movies, cable, networks are all undeniably dominated by liberal influence, Fox succeeds because there isn't some Ted Turner type to tell them they can't say it. Basically, it succeeds because liberals have everything else. If there were balance on the other networks, Fox News would lose its pre-eminence.

Conservative commentators have long asserted that a liberal radio network would not do well because those view points are already well represented by other news sources. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Air America only reinforces this fact. You must understand as well, liberals for so long have tried to represent everyone that they wind up representing no one. Why would a registered democrat union steamfitter tune into a radio program that may be debating the issue of National Endowment of the Arts Funding or homosexual marriage or removing God from schools? Truth is they won't. The liberals have sold their souls in the interest of self preservation but ultimately it will lead to their self destruction. Remember, liberalism always results in the exact opposite of its stated intent.

Way to go Paul

2006-10-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm posting a link to a story about my buddy Paul. Paul and I go way back to the mid eighties as in the Mick's Quail Inn eighties. About two years ago Paul and I started riding together. I wish I could keep up with him on his schedule and do some of these events but a)I just can't keep up with the training and b)I damned near drowned doing the Spud Triathlon and have been gun shy ever since. I did finish but I was dead last in the swimming event. I'm just not a strong open water swimmer. I can swim laps until the cows come home but I get in the open water and I freeze up. I'll stick to running and biking, thank you very little.

Anyway, I'm really proud of Paul and he is an inspiration to anyone who thinks they can't do it.

Story Here

Bodymore

2006-09-28T08:48:00.000-04:00

Baltimore has been a liberal stronghold for over 150 years, with democrats dominating every facet of its government. No Republican has been elected to the state legislature from the city in more than 50 years. No Republican has served on the City Council in more than 60 years. With that kind of rule, shouldn't Baltimore be a liberal utopian city providing quality education, neighborhoods free from crime and free health insurance for all? Shouldn't they be a beacon of economic light for both manufacturing and service jobs providing some of the highest wages in the country? The reality is quite the contrary.

Since the 70s the city's approach to their economy has emphasized a state sponsored capitalism that relies almost entirely on federal and state subsidies as opposed to market investments as the key to economic growth. Annapolis and the federal government provide a full 40 percent of the cities funding. Due to this kind of reliance, Baltimore has lost control of its once city controlled entities such as the jails, the courts, the port administration, the airport and the community college. Throughout the 90s, while other formerly industrial cities saw renewal, Baltimore's economy sagged, losing 58,000 jobs to the suburbs.

Education is no better. The high school graduation rate is an abyssmal sub 40 percent, worse than every other city save Detroit. State education officials recently labeled six Baltimore City public schools as persistently dangerous. Unfortunately, Annapolis democrats appear unwilling to reform the schools as they approved a measure to delay state takeover of the 11 worst schools and overrode Governor Ehrlich's veto of said legislation.

City Crime Rankings rank Baltimore second again only to Detroit among the most dangerous cities. In 2005, there were 269 murders in Baltimore. Although this is lower than its 1993 high of 353 murders, the current murder rate is nearly seven times the national rate.

For a party that prides itself on providing health care for all , a 2003 study showed that Baltimore has massive amounts of uninsured and and long delays for public assistance. The study, sponsored by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore (OSI-Baltimore) and the Baltimore Community Health Consortial concluded that more than 80% of Baltimore's low-income, poor and homeless families reported being uninsured.

The mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley has had six years to grasp at least one of the aforementioned quality of life issues and attempt to make a name for himself with democrats and republicans. The truth is Mayor O'Malley has been making promises to do for Maryland what he was unable to achieve during his six year run in Baltimore and democrats from Baltimore, PG and Montgomery County are ready to hand this man the governorship. While Governor Ehrlich's record during his short run as governor may be far from remarkable, it is far from damnable considering he is up against an uncompromising liberal general assembly who is more concerned with recapturing their political hold over Maryland. Are we ready to return to the one party rule of government that has proven time and again that it can't provide an economy or healthcare or a life devoid of crime or quality education?

At what point will liberals begin to question their own policies? Show me a city that is so historically dominated by any other party and fails so miserably, as our own inner cities have failed, and I swear I would NEVER vote that party again. Ever!

Kite Tube

2006-08-10T08:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm posting two blogs today because I've been so far behind. I get tons of watersport catalogs and on the back of one was an ad for a tube that you pull behind a boat that actually flies. It was called the Sportstuff Kite Tube and it had been named the sports product of the year. I was intrigued but something about the ad looked phony or doctored. The next day I went to the company's website and was able to see people using and flying the kite tube. I've been so bored with regular tubing that I rarely did it anymore and had spent the past few years only riding wakeboards. Needless to say, I was hooked and bought one on the spot.
While at the lake, the CPSC recalled the tube because of 2 deaths and 39 injuries attributed to the kite tube. I'm not surprised in the least. In the wrong hands, this tube is dangerous and I could easily see deadly. Does that mean, I'm the right hands? No it doesn't. However, I can tell you that I have fallen off of tubes being pulled behind a jet boat doing 50+ mph in a turn. Its not fun and it down right hurts. Anyone who has ridden a tube knows that in a turn the tube is actually going faster than the boat. I have also face planted on a wake board so hard that I was unconscious for a brief spell and that was only at about 25 mph. My point is water will hurt you at any speed, when you factor height into the equation, disastrous results can occur. The most important thing that we learned from watching the instructional dvd was; there is no difference in ride between 1 foot off the water or 20. Our intentions from the beginning were to keep the flying heights at a minimum. With that in mind, we rode the tube for 7 days straight at the lake (logging well over 12 hours total ride time), rode it on the river twice, and have had 11 different riders, all with no injuries. We have had riders who have gone over 10 feet, I'd even venture to say we have had on a few occasions hit twenty feet (some caught on tape). Fortunately, we always have slowed the boat down so the tube comes back down. We're not always going to be able to prevent someone from reaching undesirable heights but as with any watersport its a risk that a person must be willing to take before deciding on riding one of these things. If you decide to take that risk, once you figure out how to control the tube, you'll know why it was named the product of the year. I believe it to be the most fun I've ever had on the water. I won't be returning my kite tube. The first picture above I believe to be Sheri on the kite tube (skull and crossbones wouldn't imply any danger would they? Nah!). The next is of my two goofy boys who donned wy waxing bonnets while I was waxing the boat and the third is of Isabel at the lake. The latter two have nothing to do with the tube, they're just some of my favorites.

Summer 2006

2006-08-10T07:41:00.000-04:00

Where does the summer go? I'm not sure who has more things going on; me or the rest of the world. I've been chomping at the bit to write about such things as Hezbollah, the War, the upcoming elections, and most recently the ousting of Joe Lieberman. I just have not been able to sit down an put my thoughts to keyoard. You see, my work decided that my 13 years experience with debits and credits, FASB Statements, commercial audits, budget execution, and financial forecasting endowed me with the skillset necessary for planning an organizational event (company picnic) for 400+ Army Civilians and Soldiers. This event was planned for late June and as it turned out, it was held the very first day following a period of 4 days of monsoon-like rain. As if that wasn't enough, the week prior to the picnic I was (un)lucky enough to find myself spending a week in training for Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for Service completely isolated from my computer.

Thankfully, June has come and gone. The picnic is over and thanks to an additional week of intense LSS Training (lodged between a week at the lake and a week at the beach no less) I am now a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Let's see how far that gets me. The one thing regarding the organizational picnic I wanted to mention and that I was most proud of was I invited OIF/OEF (Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom) Medical Hold Soldiers and their families from Walter Reed to attend the picnic. We had 3 wounded soldiers and 6 family members attend. I think the weather leading up to the picnic made many soldiers and family members reluctant to sign up. The ones that did come made the picnic special for everyone and more importantly earned me some accolades with our CG (commanding general) and the COO (Chief Operating Officer). Of course six months from now they won't know my name but who cares.

The organizational move to San Antonio, Texas is still on and slated for sometime in 2010. BRAC Law says we must be in SA by October 2011. I'm not really sure what that means (are they going to arrest somebody or something?) but it kind of reinforces the fact that the organization is moving. Sheri and I have scheduled a trip to San Antonio this November. We feel it would be in our best interest to at least go check the area out that we wouldn't move to when the time comes to make the decision.

Check-up from the Neck-up

2006-06-06T11:33:00.000-04:00

Give psychiatry enough time and they'll find a name and a "underlying" cause for just about any behavior exhibited by modern man or modern me for that matter. I actually enjoy being a hypochondriac when it comes to my mental health. There's an article showing up in today's news websites about Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) that really makes me angry and as soon as I finish picking up the pieces from my shattered keyboard, I will continue.

By definition, intermittent explosive disorder involves multiple outbursts that are way out of proportion to the situation. These angry outbursts often include threats or aggressive actions and property damage. Woot! Woot! Woot! Score two points for the home team. If anyone is keeping score, I now have OCD with ADD topped off by IED (all self diagnosed of course).

Must they diagnose every behavior? The untenable answer is yes, they must - its job security at is finest. I guess the long and short of it is; if they don't diagnose new disorders, they won't get new patients and if they don't get new patients they have no one to prescribe their meds to. Here is what this study all boils down to; "Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management". This is what they do! They invent a name for a blanket mental behavior that covers a large amount of the population, they tell you its not your fault (most likely it is your fault), and that they can control it with meds and therapy (covered by most insurances no less).

What's worse is when they convince parents that their children need meds and therapy, thus creating new generations dependent upon psychiatry, a dependence they will carry into their adult lives, ever creating the need for more psychiatrists.

More from the study; "The findings also confirm that for most people, the difficulties associated with the disorder begin during childhood or adolescence, and they often have a profound and ongoing impact on the person's life." Jennifer Hartstein, a psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, said she had just diagnosed the disorder in a 16-year-old boy."In most situations, he is relatively affable, calm and very responsible," she said. But in stressful situations at home, he "explodes and tears apart his room, throws things at other people" to the point that his parents have called the police." Execuse me Ms Harstein, but what on Gods Green Earth does a teenager have to be angry about, anyway? If the parents are completely absolved from the causes of this kids behavior, what could possibly be the "stressful situations" at home? He has to take the garbage out? Cleaning his room? Being home before midnight? I don't get it but then I'm not a pyschiatrist either.

The reality is that most likely the parents aren't absolved from responsibility, but then how is this a problem for the child? When it comes to parents taking their kids to psychiatrists, its not the behavior of the child that is the problem, its a problem the parents have with the child's behavior. Why would anyone screw with a child's mind by taking them to therapy or giving them mind altering drugs to control a behavior that they the parents created in the first place? Some would argue because it works. If masking the behavior is one's interpretation of working then I guess it does. I don't consider masking the problem as a success, its but a mere band-aid to future behavioral problems, therapies, clinics, meds, etc.

I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, I believe him to be another Hollywood type who has confused fame with wisdom. However, I do think he nailed it when he was on the Today show. In a nutshell, he criticized psychiatry and drew attention to its genuine flaws and failings. Tom said that psychiatry had a long history of abusing people, including electroshock. He said, “There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.” He said that antidepressants can only “mask the problem” and that “these drugs are very dangerous.” He called psychiatry a “pseudoscience” and suggested that there are better approaches.

You don't have to be a Scientologist to agree with him although the media made it out that way. I don't think any Hollywood star would go on a national news show and call out his interviewer as uneducated on the subject if he himself weren't educated somewhat. I actually believe TC was right, about all of it.

Au Pair Mon Frere?

2006-05-09T08:08:00.000-04:00

You may or may not know that are household has grown by one during the month of April. We have enlisted the services of an Au Pair. He’s a young Swede named Sven with blond hair, blue eyes, muscular build about 6”1. Come to think of it, I don’t know how were going to pay for him now that Sheri has decided to stay home full time and have an au pair.

All seriousness aside (although you can request male au pairs) we have selected a 23 year old Bosnian Girl named Asmira. Only into her fourth week, I can say that she has surpassed all of our expectations. She has taken real well to the kids and the kids have taken well to her. Cooper is a little more reserved as he is in school all day and not around her like Ethan and Isabel but I think he’ll come around once school is out. He’ll really come around once he finds out she’ll wait on him hand and foot. I’ve been trying to break her of that habit because you know how kids are; give them an inch and they’ll work you like a dog.

I guess if that’s the worst she could do, I should be pretty thankful. I just want to make sure that my boys don’t treat her like some fancy new toy they can take advantage of. “Get me this, get me that, I’m hungry, change the channel.”

We all get the added benefit of the cultural exchange as well. She sings to Isabel in her language, she has taught Ethan how to say hello in Bosnian and she has cooked a Bosnian meal for us. She taught me how to count to ten in Bosnian and of course, I have taught her to count to 400 in satellite. You know 333 is MTV, 206 is ESPN, 360 is Fox News. I have also extolled the virtues of some of America’s most technological advances as well, such as (angels singing) TIVO. Damn if I didn’t catch her fast forwarding through the commercials on American Idol last week. My work here is done.

Asmira’s best friend Almira is an Au Pair for a family that lives just north of Baltimore. This past weekend I drove her halfway to meet the other host family so she could spend the weekend with Almira. On the drive up we were talking and I was saying how television is a great place for her to pick up more English skills. She told me that she has learned a lot from Ethan in just the short time she has been with us. That’s fine but the day she tells me that a wight bulb is burnt out or she weally weally wikes something is the day that she may be learning a bit much from Ethan.

This weekend Asmira and Almira are off to Atlantic City. I still can't believe they're going; they leave Saturday evening at 6 pm and return Sunday morning at 9 am. Apparently, these are pretty common trips where you gamble all night and come home. When I told Asmira I couldn't believe she was going, she asked me if I used to do things like that when I was her age. I was puzzled and I said what are you talking about, I am your age. Then it dawned on me, no I'm not her age and yes I DID do stuff like that when I was 23. I'm almost an entire generation ahead of her for god's sake! It only took me 4 weeks to figure it out but boy did it hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't feel that old.

The Federalist

2006-04-21T06:57:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it, for fun I actually bought and am reading the Federalist Papers. If you know your history you know that the Federalist Papers were really just an adverting campaign promoting the then new Constitution. I kind of always took for granted (I was so lazy in school) that the Constitution has always just been there but back in the 1780s, the states, all 13 of them, particularly New York, were scared to death of the Constitution. They were afraid that the freedoms that they had fought and died for were going to be taken away by the new Constitution. Along comes John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison who under the pseudonym "Publius" start a barrage of letter writing to sway public opinion and eventually ratify the Constitution. Above and beyond the respected statesmen of the day, these three men's philosophical legacy has stood the test of time for over 200 years and could not be more relevant today then ever.

I'm only into Federalist Paper #6, but let me lay some passages on you that I find truly remarkable. Think about each and how they could apply today;

"For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution."

Proselytes meaning converts (I had to look that up).

"The pride of states, as well as of men, naturally disposes them to justify all their actions, and opposes their acknowledging, correcting, or repairing their errors and offenses. The national government, in such cases, will not be affected by this pride, but will proceed with moderation and candor to consider and decide on the means most proper to extricate them from the difficulties which threaten them. "

How genius is that? The pride of men will not let them think rationally or change their opinion. John Jay was brilliant.

More John Jay (they being foreign governments);

"If they see that our national government is efficient and well administered, our trade prudently regulated, our militia properly organized and disciplined, our resources and finances discreetly managed, our credit re-established, our people free, contented, and united, they will be much more disposed to cultivate our friendship than provoke our resentment. If, on the other hand, they find us either destitute of an effectual government, or split into three or four independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, what a poor, pitiful figure will America make in their eyes! How liable would she become not only to their contempt but to their outrage, and how soon would dear-bought experience proclaim that when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves. "

Are we not a nation split over what to do about evil in the world? Is the divide in our country over the war not relevant to what Jay is saying?

Even more John Jay;

"Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers"

Can I get an "Amen Brother"!

Have I not said this time and time again? Our forefathers knew that some individual rights had to be sacrificed for the betterment of us as a whole. That we don't exist as individuals but more as members of a society. They instilled a basic level of rights that all people should have to enjoy a free life. The individual rights added later only seek to diminish us as a society.

If you can't tell, I am enjoying reading these although the pace is slow. Some words I have no clue what they mean so I have to stop and look them up. Sometimes one sentence can be a large paragraph and I lose what they are trying to say by them referring to the former and then referring to the latter. Generally speaking that's okay but sometimes the former may be an idea three or four lines above in the sentence. I end up going back and rereading to try to get their point.

Should I ever finish, my next read will be the Anti-Federalist Papers. Woo-hoo, sounds like a "barrel of monkeys" doesn't it?

Insurance

2006-03-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

Healthcare in this country is too expensive. Republicans know it and democrats know it. The argument here, as is any political issue, is what can be done about it. Yes, managed care (your HMOs, your PPOs, your POSs) was a Reaganistic initiative which promised lower costs (which it did) but over the years it has been bastardized by both parties who are owned by the healthcare lobbying groups. Of course this all flows back to the need for campaign finance reform, but I digress.

The democratic solution is to have someone else pay for it, their employer or the government, anyone but themselves, because every democrat knows they don't want to pay for it because it's too expensive.
Republicans know it's too expensive to and we can tell this because, if they're an employee, they're happy to have the company pay for it or, if they run a business, they're shifting some cost to employees and/or changing to cheaper plans and/or doing without. The summary is this; democrats: Who's going to pay for it? Republicans: This costs too much. Same problem, what do we do about it?

Before addressing any solution, the question that begs to be answered is why is healthcare so expensive? One large reason is we are pathetic consumers of our healthcare. Most of us know where the best place to go to buy shoes, groceries, clothing, etc is. Does anyone know who the doctor is that gives the cheapest physical is? Probably not. We don't shop around for the best deal in medical care like we shop around for everything else because we're conditioned to paying a premium plus a co-pay and we have no incentive to look for a better deal. This has led to us a system that is rife with waste and abuse. Waste in that the doctors\hospitals try to collect on everything imaginable for a hospital stay or an office visit and they charge the maximum that the insurer will allow regardless of what the actual cost of the treatment is. Abuse in that we as consumers do not take a more active role in taking care of ourselves (extra sour cream on that burrito please or I’ll exercise tomorrow) or we go to the doctor or emergency room for every scraped knee or sniffle. “Guilty!”

Lasik Eye Surgery is a medical procedure that has operated completely outside the confines of medical insurance. In its early days this procedure was about $5,000 an eye with so-so results. Currently, two eyes can be done for under $2,500 with guaranteed results. In essence, this medical procedure, subjected only to free market forces, resulted in lower costs and better results. This is much like the world of plastic surgery but since I’ve never had a boob job (at least not yet) eye surgery just seem to fit. Since there are no “deep pockets” paying the bills and cost has become the overall driving consumer factor, providers are forced to look for ways to be more competitive, i.e. lower costs or offering better technology and better results. Does anyone know of an insurance bound medical procedure that can make the same claim?

Imagine (you know I like to live in a hypothetical world) if there was no health insurance and everyone had to pay out of pocket with our meager paychecks. Would doctors still be able to charge $100 for a 10-minute office visit, or would people either stop/postpone visits or shop around for someone charging less, thus putting the $100 doctor out of business? Would hospitals be able to charge $40 for a Tylenol, or would they have to lower their costs to a realistic figure because people would demand they do so or go elsewhere? We allow these outrageous and ever growing costs because "we" think we're not really paying them, the insurance company is paying them. And whenever the providers raise their rates, as they often do, then the insurance outfits just raise their rates, and we pay it because we are too complacent to say enough is enough (where are our leaders, our rebels, our patriots!).

Am I saying the elimination of all health insurance is the answer? Absolutely not. Heck, Cooper’s surgeries and medical care was well over $500,000 to date, 99 percent of which was paid by insurance. I do think we will always need some type of catastrophic coverage for these situations. However, I do believe the costs would be significantly lower if some of the burdens imposed by insurance were removed. My point in all this is the democratic solution of getting more people health insurance coverage plays right into the hands of the medical profession and the insurance companies. Do you think the insurance companies DON’T want to collect more premiums and up their profits, do you think the doctors DON’T want more people coming in with a runny nose? I think not. Oil company executives have to be scratching their heads thinking “how can we be more like the insurance companies”?

Health insurance through my company costs $11,098 per annum. My company pays $7,800 and I pay $3,298. Pretty good deal for me when compared to what my employer pays. I like to think that if our doctor’s offices were no longer allowed to bill the insurance companies and had to answer to my wallet, costs would go down. I believe I could be a better consumer if a significant portion of that money was given back to me and the rest went to some type of catastrophic insurance policy. Maybe I’m just stuck in the hypothetical. Maybe the democrats are right; that I’m better off as an indentured servant. God, I hope not.

One Party Dominance?

2006-03-14T07:18:00.000-05:00

Today's "Howard Dean" style of politics leads people to believe that one man or one party is responsible for the ills of our nation. Tell a lie enough times, eventually it becomes the truth. The democrats have found that it is easier to deceptively convince people how bad the republicans are than it is to convince people that their way is better. Their whole campaign strategy is and has been "vote for me, I'm not a republican."

Luckily, that is not how American politics work. The two party system currently in place provides checks and balances so that one sector of citizenry doesn’t end up dominating the political system. The conservative Republicans try to get your vote by appealing to your head. They tell you that you and the majority can have it better than you would if liberal Democrats ran the country for very long. They tell you Democrats prefer "peace through compromising treaties," as opposed to "peace through military strength." They tell you America has been morally declining because of the liberals' socially engineered permissive society, where anything goes." They tell you the liberals want to take guns from everyone in order to "appear" tough on crime, when all we really need are old-fashioned criminal laws making it safer for all law-abiding citizens. Upon hearing this, a majority of Americans would think in their heads that the conservatives were right and would cast their votes for conservative Republicans. Liberal Democrats try to get your vote by appealing to your heart. They tell you that you and the majority are behind the eight ball and the rich are richer thanks to you. They tell you government would be in your bedrooms, telling you what you could and couldn't do legally in a sexual relationship, if the conservative Republicans had their way. They tell you Republicans would arm America with enough nuclear weapons to kill the whole world hundreds of times over.

The majority of Americans seem to feel they are somewhere in between, voting for liberals sometimes and conservatives sometimes, thus giving America a mixture of government working at cross purposes.

Liberalism by its definition is a philosophy that advocates the freedom of the individual and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties. While honorable in its aim, the results of liberalism have been to the detriment of society as a whole. Does the ability to go out in the streets and attack your nation's policies, or betray your oaths to your government or spouse make us a better country? Liberals believe that these individual freedoms are what's most important and that we are better off as a country with freedoms of abortion, divorce, no regard for religion. That we are better off without the blanket of moral judgments that religion imposes. While I think that individual freedoms are great, the reality is that with rare exception we don't exist as individuals. We exist as members of a society, and being a member of a society requires that some individual freedoms be sacrificed for the betterment of the society. The Founding Fathers understood that, and enumerated a solid set of freedoms that every American should have for a good quality of life. It seems to me that they were on the right track as many of the "freedoms" added more recently have done little more than drag society down.

Swim Lessons

2006-03-09T12:53:00.000-05:00

I guess it’s a good thing but it still kind of drives me nuts. The two boys will not get undressed in the locker room if there are other gentlemen around. It makes for a slow time in trying to get them dressed after their swim lessons. How do you teach a kid when it’s okay to be naked and when it isn’t okay to be naked in front of a stranger? I guess locker room etiquette will have to come when they are a little older. I do try to convince them that as long as I or their mother are there (you know Sheri likes to change in the men’s locker room too) its okay. I even said to them Monday after lessons “I’ll take my swim suit off, look it doesn’t bother me none. It doesn’t bother me but what did bother me was when Cooper said to the guy next to us “Ha Ha, look at my Daddy’s butt!” What makes this even funnier is the guy instinctively DID look at my butt trying to humor my kids. He thought I didn’t catch him but I swear he turned three shades of red and he was black.

The locker room is also where the song “drying my nads” (a little ditty I taught them after their baths) comes back to haunt me.

Never a dull moment.

Social Security (Feb 2005)

2006-03-08T13:46:00.000-05:00

President Clinton, in a major policy speech delivered in February 1998 at Georgetown University, warned about "the looming fiscal crisis in Social Security" that "affects every generation. He also stated "if you don’t do anything, one of two things will happen. Either it will go broke and you won’t ever get it, or if we wait too long to fix it, the burden on society … of taking care of our generation's social security obligations will lower your income and lower your ability to take care of your children to a degree that most of us who are you parents think would be horribly wrong and unfair to you and unfair to the future prospects of the united states.” This was an acknowledgement of the impending doom by the highest ranking democrat of that time. Three national panels had already been commissioned during the Clinton administration to review Social Security reform options: the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform (1993-1995); the 1994-1996 Advisory Council on Social Security; and the 1997-1998 National Commission on Retirement Policy.

All three of the Clinton commissioned panels offered long-term reform plans that included individual accounts. Now, no one from the left will even acknowledge there is a problem. Their only rebuttal is that the stock market is too "risky". If the stock market is so risky, why does virtually every union pension fund in America invest the bulk of their assets in the “risky” stock market? According to the Federal Reserve, state and local government employee pension funds have nearly $3 trillion in assets, 66 percent of which is invested in corporate equities (i.e.: stocks). So if majority of us hedge our financial futures based on the stock market in one way or another, why the sudden disdain for doing the same with a portion of social security.

The theory behind Social Security is that it's a form of insurance, while in practice it's nothing more than a pyramid scheme. In such a scheme, early investors can only be paid off by adding an even larger number of participants. To keep the status quo is unacceptable, Social Security is going bankrupt and sooner or later this pyramid scheme will collapse.

Currently, we are in a situation where many people depend on Social Security for their retirement and it cannot be funded indefinitely. It is unrealistic to think that rapid economic growth will provide enough taxes to sustain benefits at current levels. Today, retired Americans get benefits two to five times greater than the amount they and their employers paid in. Whether its tomorrow or 20 years from now, it will go broke and I for one am planning my retirement on that theory.

President Bush in his address to the nation suggested something like the system currently in place for federal workers, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). This would allow U.S. workers to shift some of their payroll taxes into personal investment accounts. The TSP is a $148 billion-401k type program that lets government employees save for retirement by investing pretax dollars into funds that mirror the market. Three of the funds are based on stock indexes, one is a bond index and one is government securities fund. The highest 10-year annual compound return on investment was 11 percent. Is it a mere matter of coincidence that this fund with the highest return on investment was the U.S. Company stock fund?

Latest Missive

2006-03-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

Its tax time again and with it we’ll hear the pleas for tax reform. We’ll hear calls for the elimination of income taxes and converting to a consumption tax or a flat tax. While these reformists make a good case, serious tax reform in all reality is not going to happen. Serious tax reform will only occur once we eliminate the current campaign finance rules. Over the last 30 years or so lobbying has become big business in our nation’s capital. Our congressman and senators spend their time satisfying the needs of the lobbyists. The end goal of lobbying to get a specific tax rule that allows the lobbyist to justify to his clients that he is doing something for their money. Our representatives then provide the arcane rule to justify the support of the lobbyist. I thought we were supposed to be a government of “we the people” not a government of “they the special interests”.
How did our representatives become so beholden to their lobbyists and not their constituents? Many Americans just don’t see or chose not to see the relationship between our annual tax liability and the efficiency (if one can say that with a straight face) of our government. The most important feature of our existing tax policy is that the money does not come straight from our pockets. If we don’t have to write a check for it, we simply don’t seem to care how our government spends our money. We do our taxes and the most important line is the last, the amount of our refund. Talk about being lulled into complacency. Imagine for a second we eliminated withholdings and required everyone to pay their taxes in lump sum. Would we not become a nation of concerned tax payers and voters overnight? Would we not demand better accountability from our representatives?

Our progressive system of income taxes only compounds this problem. Progressive taxes breed corruption, complacency and class warfare. Believe the liberal scare mongering or not, but a small group of higher income taxpayers pay most of the individual income taxes each year. Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, this group has paid 90 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2000 and 2001, this group paid over 96 percent of the total. So if I pay $1.75 for a hamburger and you pay $50.00 for the same hamburger, wouldn’t you want, no, wouldn’t you demand something more in return? Maybe kickbacks like a free soda or french fries? Maybe part ownership or a seat on the board of directors? This how progressive taxes work, higher income groups pay a larger percentage of their income for their share of government than other groups. This being the case, shouldn’t they be entitled to more control? The easy answer to the liberal state of mind is no, they shouldn’t be given more control of our government. The hard part for them to swallow is the government shouldn’t be taking more either.