Sunday Morning Coming Down

One of the more interesting aspects of having a 6th grader in the house has been the books she is reading.  The last few weeks have been filled with The Giver and the next book is Facing the Lion. I'd read The Giver before on the advise of my sister a teacher who prides herself on reading all the books on the Florida reading list.  My nephew commented that the book had been banned in several school districts.  The view of life in the book are not much different from Brave New World by Huxley, but I read that book in college and not in 6th grade.  Fifty years ago is a long time and the stirrings I remember probably did not kick in until 7th grade. And probably the biggest difference is access to the Internet, that has swallowed up so much time for everybody from the time kids get access to their first computer.

I'd never heard this before I read Craig Johnson.  This may become my new rejoinder for most requests I get.  Or maybe not.  With the right tone of voice I think it's funny but I think more than a few folks may not understand the remark let alone the humor in it. The UU religious part of me agrees with the following: Unitarians think they are too good to go to hell and the Universalists think god is too good to send them to hell. This is not a very important post, but it actually triggered a google search about ice water in hell.

There were still people waiting in line to vote at the Coral Gables Library at about 4:30pm on Sunday 10/28/2012.  Yesterday, I believe about 28,000 people voted at early voting stations throughout the county on the first day of early voting.

Sandy has moved away from South Florida.  It's still breezy but the sky is blue and it's cooler.  Thankfully it was not as rainy as Issac.  Miami has broken records for the amount of rain this year. Today is also the first day of early voting in Florida.  I thought I would get up early and vote.  The lines were long at 7:30 AM.  I had originally planned to get up really early and be one of the first to vote.  I guess a lot of people had the same idea as the parking lots around the Coral Gables Library were full.  My impression from the people in line is that this election is going to be much closer than the election four years ago in Florida.  It took almost 2 hours fifteen minutes to vote. I would guess that for many people it is easier to vote absentee, but I just feel a liitle bit more engaged in the process even if it takes some time waiting in line.  I had a little bit of a chuckle as I saw the sign where pol...

George McGovern died on Sunday.   I’ve thought about his candidacy for the presidency in 1972   often over the last 40 years.   He spoke out against the Viet Nam War before it was popular.   He served in the military during WWII as a bomber pilot but did not make his military experience a big part of his campaign.   He is quoted as saying that he wanted to be President in the worst way and he succeeded. I think he was a populist and a liberal and while his political campaign in 1972 was soundly rejected and the country voted overwhelmingly for Richard Nixon, I think he spoke for many people who eventually understood and agreed with the need to end the war. One of the more profound comments he made after losing the election and returning to the Senate was the need for the campaign and the campaigning to end.   This is something the current political class has forgotten.   Bob Dole and George McGovern worked together on farm policy and trying t...

The debate last night is getting a lot more like the crap we hear from congress.  For all the talk about needing to be aggressive and make points, stir up the base and what ever the chattering heads are saying, and fighting back, and back biting the debates so far have been lacking serious, substantial discussion of policy from both sides. I would have liked a little more dignity from the candidates.  Stepping on each other the way they did last night was more like McLaughlin Group or the NFL Pregame Shows or Sports Talk Radio talking about the Yankees. Mercifully the election will be over in about twenty days.  And somebody somewhere is already visiting Iowa and New Hampshire getting ready for 2016.

The Miami Herald gives me a rather unique opportunity two survey parts of two neighborhoods in Miami Dade County.  This survey done weekly and it consists of a passive visits to about five hundred residences.  I deliver advertising flyers to houses that are not subscribers to the Miami Herald. The neighborhoods range from modest 1-2 bedroom condominiums that were converted from rentals to really nice and big houses that circle Lake Catalina and Blue Lake.  Both neighborhoods are centrally located, near parks, expressways, and shopping. I have delivered Herald Values to these neighborhoods for almost four years and have watched the housing market, advertisers interested in the area, and talk to more than a few people who live in neighborhood regularly. My next few posts to this blog will give my opinion on what seems to be happening in these typical Miami Neighborhoods. In 33155 properties along Lake Catalina are receiving major makeovers.  At the corner of Mi...

This is one time I wish I could vote for someone from Massachusetts.  Kerry and Dukakis got my votes in early presidential votes but I was less than inspired and I thought their candidacies were somewhat doomed. Elizabeth Warren in spite of charges about her ethnicity, which I equate to posturing about the Viet Nam War by candidates who did not serve in that war is running her race and I hope she wins. I think she is speaking truth when she reminds people about the interdependency of people in the private sector and the public sector.  Infrastructure be it roads, education, police, fire and the common defence all contribute to the well being of the country. Too often the augments are either/or, take it or leave it, my way or the highway and other extreme ideas that are holding this country back. The way things are going it isn't leading it's misleading. 

First I bought a computer, then a second computer, then I connected to the internet (dial up), bought a cell phone, then I got connected to the cable, then I bought another computer, then I bundled cable, internet, and telephone, then I bought a wireless router and now a kindle fire... I'm not an early implementer and the process of changing is difficult.  Washing dishes and cooking, doing laundry and cleaning are not foreign concepts to me. But the way I am reading books will never be the same.

I doubt that the University of Miami could have done a better job of disappointing their fans than with last night's turkey of a game.  The Golden Domers crushed the "U" so badly that Golden will need to do something to restore the team's confidence.  Dorsett, a hero last week dropped two passes that could have been touchdowns.  The "U"s defense tried but could not get the job done. Georgia Tech lost another one, this time against Clemson, lackluster, but the shocker of the weekend was the Noles with their fizzle out against North Carolina State.  This game shouldn't have even been close,   The Noles blew a 16-0 lead and lost in the last minute of the game. Meanwhile in the Swamp the Gators beat LSU in a tough and close game.  I attribute this to a homefield advantage. Meanwhile, the MOUNTAINEERS of Morgantown took their offense and offensive defense to Austin.  Geno Smith threw four more passes for touchdowns but needed to recover...

Most people that are unemployed or underemployed that live in high unemployment states don't need someone to tell them that there are problems in the economy.  The statistics are what they are.  There are two surveys, one of households, the other of employers.  I'm sure people in North Dakota know there are more jobs available and the economy is good.  Nevada and California are having problems putting people to work, but it is difficult in this real estate market to just sell your house and move to North Dakota. So the unemployment rate got down to 7.8% nationally.  Next month it might go up a bit or it might stat the same, or it might go down a bit.  We are living in the American economy that is part of the global economy and the condition of those economies, the housing market and lots of other things can affect the numbers. It was almost a certainty that the people in charge of conspiracies would scream about the drop in the unemployment rate....

Once again I feel the need to comment on something I saw on Morning Joe.  Scott Brown is quizzed about which Supreme Court Justice he likes and Elizabeth Warren is asked about who in the Senate she could work with. Scott Brown who seems moderate and is attempting to portray himself as a moderate says he like the most conservative of the Supreme Court Justices, Justice Scalia and then mentions about half of the rest of the court.  Maybe the first thing you say is what you really think.  Justice Scalia is not a moderate. Elizabeth Warren is asked if which Republicans she could work with if elected to office.  She mentions Richard Lugar, a moderate from Indiana that was defeated by a Tea Party Candidate in Indiana.  The  upshot being that she had no one to name and said it would depend on the issue. Politics these days means getting elected and has little to do with legislating. This is not sustainable.  We need politics that can legislate an...

Per Morning Joe, if we are spending our entire federal tax revenue on social security, medicare, medicaid and the interest on the debt and have to borrow the rest of the money to pay our bills for all other discretionary expenditures including defense, things need to change for the better really quickly. The United States of America can't wait and politicians of all stripes need to be prepared to do something beyond posturing, raising campaign funds and running for office.  The problems facing this country were created by bi-partisan neglect and bi-partisan policy failures over a long period of time.  Tax reform and modification of entitlement programs and more strictly means testing eligibility for expensive programs all need to be acted upon. We can't keep kicking the can down the road.