Sunday Morning Coming Down

I think it's great he went out on top.  I think he spent enough time managing baseball teams at the major league level and I'm glad there is another opening for someone who needs a job.  I'm not a big fan of the way he changed the game with relief pitchers for certain innings and how it has made being a starting pitcher one with a pitch count.  George Will may think differently but I don't agree with his politics either although we are both Cub fans. The World Series is over for this year and it was a good one with competitive games, drama, lots of scoring and some interesting story lines.  If it had lasted a little longer we might have had a game snowed out.  Thankfully that did not happen.  I think the best team won.  Football and hockey will not have to compete with basketball for my attention although this year the Dolphins are so bad that I will be spending even more time watching races on TVG.  I don't bet on football or the other m...

I'm a little over 60.  Sunday morning in my 20's was trying to shake off a hangover sometimes.  Then I used to visit Hialeah Park during "the season" to watch the horses work out and maybe get to info on a future race.  Then I discovered Sunday Morning with Charles Kauralt.  Then I started going to the local Unitarian Universalist Church.  In Miami the tourist season isn't exactly what it used to be.  It is a much more year round thing.  Hialeah closed but has reopened with slots in the future.  I've been back to watch the quarter horses work out and it is almost the same thing but the cowboy hats make me feel a little bit strange.  And Charles Osgood has replaced Karault, and I can't remember the last time I had a beer on Sunday Morning in spite of the title of this blog. One habit replaces another and so it goes.  I am happy seeing people on Sunday Morning at church.  And the isolation of earlier times is gone. 

A Republican lawmaker is surprised that you need a birth certificate, social security card, and two documents proving address to renew your drivers license.  Now he wants to change the law.  Surprise surprise and these are the folks that want to reduce regulations.  This was just another road block for voting that nobody admits to but it is.  This only becomes obvious when some one comes up against it, and what should be easier is a real bite. Or is this some other plot, that I can only imagine.  We in Florida have many drivers that could use some further review and identity fraud is a real issue but I doubt that a birth certificate,social security card and proof of local address will help if you need to renew a drivers license. Marco Rubio is under review by the birthers.  I thought the issue was jobs, jobs, jobs.  Actually for many it is the conflict between I've got mine, keep things exactly as they are and some thing is...

There are some big differences between Occupy Wall Street and other disaffected groups like the Tea Party.  One is younger, the other is older, one seems to be more concerned about social issues than the other, and in the end there probably some difference in how they deal with issues regarding the democratic process although the uber concervative control freaks and anarchists on the left are not very functional. I sympathize with the 20-30 year olds that are having problems with finding jobs that pay enough to cover college loans and get a start on life.  Sadly they may have difficulty converting the outrage against the current distribution of wealth and jobs in this economy because they don't vote in the numbers they should.  Young adults (the invincibles) have had a lower voting rate than their older counterparts. It is easier to complain than do the hard work of organizing and putting the organization in business and then making sure the new organization follows u...

I wish I had more patience and that I could share any surplus.  The last few days have been filled with honking horns an people in a hurry.  I understand the being in a hurry but there were a couple of times when people were hitting the horn almost the instant the light changed.  I have had to make multiple calls to a government customer service center that has a lot of work and little staff.  At least after calls almost too numersous to count contact with a human was made and hopefully something good will come of it.

Visited Krome Detention Center yesterday.  Got a phone # and an address in Broward County.  ICE Enforcement.  Another car ride and given th fact that they did not answer a couple of phone call probably more of a run around.  A Libarian had a sign at occupy Wall Street.  "You know things are messed up when a librarian is protesting.  Makes sense, but is more than a little disconcerting.

This may be a hard promise to keep.  I'm tired of the horse race coverage.  Why don't these folks just do some legislating.  Let's forget about the big deals.  If there is a bridge between Ohio and Kentucky that needs fixing let's do it.  Maybe this a better use of time than saying we want something but don't want to pay for it.  This seems to be the way we do stuff these days.  Eventually things get out of hand.  This includes taxcuts, tax increases, tax credits, government and policy in general.  If everyone was as consistent as they claim to be why would there be deficits and this includes both political parties.  Some of the foreign policy issues, military industrial complex issues, financial system issues, and health care issues would be less intractable if they were dealt with a less political frame work.  Even the class warfare issue is a red herring because it seems to deny issues on both sides of the problem, be they wealth...

This morning we are off to the Krome Detention Center.  Details to follow.  Did not sleep well last night.  Many issues that seem unsolvable at this level still need resolution.  It's a federal holiday so my expectations are low.

A few years ago I visited a website to "Save Hialeah Park".  This is a beautiful place with some really old buildings.  It was a great race track, home to Citation and many other great racehorses.  It reopened two years ago with quarterhorse racing.  It it also the a place where I used to spend Sunday Mornings.  I used to eat breakfast their and watch the horses from up north work out before going to the races at Calder, Gulfstream, or Hialeah.  I went a couple of times with some Silver Bullets and cooler in hand also.  Why would anyone wake up really early on Sunday Morning and drive to Hialeah?  It's all about the sounds of the place.  The flamingos were still sleeping in.  It wasn't hot, but the sound of horses galloping and breathing in the morning is like nothing you will ever hear.  It's quiet, not silent, but it's busy and all sorts of busy fast, slow and quiet at the same time.  A magical way of going that is as ...

I'm not entirely disappointed that the NBA strike may last longer than some people anticipated.  It will not help the Miami Heat or Lebron James.  In Miami it will be a non issue because sports fans down here need to be hit in the head like mules to get their attention. I was struck by an article related to the business of sports that talked about the impact of the strike on local businesses. I realized that there were taverns that used football to generate traffic for beer, wings, burgers, and fries.  They breathed a collective sigh of relief when the football lockout was resolved.  NASCAR was not going to fill the bill on Sunday Afternoon, and college football is not ubiqutious except in college towns.   The service industries in downtown Miami will miss the economic activity generated by 41 events at the Triple A. Venues in Memphis, Orlando, Portland, Sacramento will indeed have a tough season even if the franchises lose less money by not playing....

Hank Williams Jr. get bounced from as easy gig singing are you ready for some football and it's about time.  In spite of this country's tolerance for freedom of speech there are some analogies that just don't work. The use of Hitler analogies is a bridge too far for all but the white supremecist groups in this country.  Unless you put on an armband, start making the Hitler salutes or you see a national leader doing the same this is one use of words and symbols that needs to be stopped. 

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was interviewed by Vanity Fair Magazine where he lamented the current state of government and the economy where 1% of the population have almost 40%of the wealth and receive an extremely high percentage of the income also.  He asserts that much of the increase in the concentration of wealth in the country and the growth in income of the wealthiest is as much a function of the wealthiests ability to game the tax rates.  They are able to do this by the access that money can buy through political contributions.  Lincoln said it was government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Stiglitz says it is government of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.  If you include multinational corporations as people is it any wonder that jobs can go overseas to places where the wages are lower and companies are able to escape taxation in the United States. These are the laws that have been passed by our own democracy....

I lived through the Mariel Boat Lift.  I remember the dislocations it caused in the Magic City with tent cities under expressways, overcrowded schools, hospitals and some issues related to crime and drugs in the process and this happened with a generally supportive Cuban community. Last year it was Arizona, last week it was Alabama that passed an even stricter law related to immigration. This country needs real immigration reform.  I'm skeptical of the state by state approach.  In too many ways immigration and illegal criminal aliens are being confused and the public policies of this country are subject to hysterical rants of politicians.  A good immigration policy can help us attract good hard working people and help us grow and prosper as a country. Stepping up efforts to identify and deport everyone here without proper immigration paperwork won't work.  In fact many people came to this country legally and just not followed up with an increasin...

There are proposals to close post offices throughout the country.  The last two times I went to the post office were to get a passport and to mail a package.  I do drop off letters at the South Miami Office regularly.  Our church mails about 150 newsletters monthly to those who don't pick it up on the last Sunday of the month and pays first class postage  Whether I get mail on Saturday or Monday doesn't make much difference to me.  Even in a wealthy congregation there are many that don't follow stuff electronically.  Most of these people are older. The Economist Magazine was also commenting on the number of states that are adjusting their voting rules to require picture IDs.  There are many people without government issued picture IDs.  They are mostly poor and elderly or younger adults that don't drive.  Supposedly these changes are done to stop voter fraud.  I live in Miami and the fraud that has occurred has to do with abs...