Sunday Morning Coming Down

Sunday evening I had the opportunity to visit the Miami Airport.  I must admit it has been a long time since I have traveled by plane.  I don't travel much, mostly by choice.  When you live in Miami you are close to a lot of things but also a long way from Georgia. The Airport has some new connections.  Public rail transportation has arrived and it should change many things about the airport. It should be easier to find a parking space if you drive, and for many not having to drive at all will be a big positive. You can park at a metrorail station for a fraction of what it costs to park at the airport and hop on a train to go almost anywhere in the world.  Wow and it only took thirty years for this to happen. Miami is an international city and if you don't believe it just watch the constants streams of people coming and going from the international parts of the airport.  It is quite a sight seeing so many people from so many places. I was impre...

The Miami Marlins are at it again.  In the sports vernacular they are sellers rather than buyers.  It's pretty clear they are not going anywhere and short of a few miracles the team will not be in the playoffs.  The skinny is that Giancarlo Stanton is the only untouchable.  Hanley Ramirez learned the hard way that the Marlins have little patience.  The sad fact is that a new stadium does not success guarantee.  In fact the owners work harder on getting the stadium and had more patience with that process than they have shown with the team. The pitching has been inconsistent, and the day to day players have not been able to hit at anything near their long term averages.  These are a couple of reasons why people are not lining up to buy those prime seats behind home plate.  The Marlins are not the Miami Heat.  Jeffery Loria is not Mickey Arison and David Sampson is not Pat Riley. The fact is that in the face of some questionable decisions ...

The Florida governor said this about the latest health care reform bill.  It over promises, under performs, and in the end costs a lot of money.  This could be said about almost any government program.  Popular programs, safety net programs, and even programs that are necessary have issues that make them less than completely effective and cheap. Cheap is an operative word.  Cheap and effective is a good goal, but that has been driven to why bother.  Clean water, clean air, affordable health care, inexpensive food, public transportation that can compete with automobiles and housing that is affordable all makes the country we live in a better place to be. Something seems to have fallen off the tracks.  The electioneering never seems to stop, the amount of money raised for campaigns is out of proportion to the influence that money should have on elections and people we elect to public office either buy their way into office or spend too much time r...

Many people are upset about issues of relativity.  Maybe you make more money than I do.  Maybe we do different things to account for the difference.  Maybe we do the same thing at different places for different people. It costs more to live in New York City than it does to live almost anywhere else. Yesterday at church the minister commented on inhumane conditions in jails in Maricopa County in Arizona.  I think the conditions for such prisoners could be made better and there is on going litigation regarding the people serving time or waiting for trials at these facilities. Do people agree on minimum standards across cultures, borders, continents or even within states?  This is a difficult question.  There are many standards and then there is the concept of freedom from standards.  Free riders, moral hazards and even discipline colors the thoughts we have about these issues as we live life. A fair days work for a fair days pay makes sense un...

I've watched a few Marlin games of late and have been encouraged by the fact that they have been hitting the ball.  Last nights game was a disappointment because the fielding was lousey.  Zambrano was his own worst enemy and Ozzie really can't do much about bad throws to first. Tiger won the last PGA event on a course that fits his game.  I don't know if it is very important if he wins anoother major tournament.  He is the best player in the game and the crowds that follow him are enough to rattle almost anyone that plays with him. Dwight Howard the second or third best player in NBA wants to play somewhere else.  The Howard behavior is an unfortunate side effect of the NBA star system that too many players have bought into.  This is bad for the player and the teams involved.