Sunday Morning Coming Down

There are many cautionary tales.  This is one of them.  I only know part of the story, I don't know the details but there are things you should not do in public. I stopped to get a Cuban sandwich at a place near my house.  South Miami in an effort to be trendy allows cafes to put tables and chairs on the sidewalk so people can eat outside at lunch or dinner.  This is mostly dubious if you walk in downtown South Miami.  Walking the gauntlent of diners is inconvinient for pedestrians and diners.  The sidewalks were not designed as additions to restaurants. A pretty young girl in her 20's is speaking on her cell phone to a relative(probably) loudly but not angrily, the other person at the table is listening intently, he is older,greying, they have a nice BMW, dressed casually but the tee shirt and shorts did not come from Kmart.  A couple you might see in the Grove, South Beach, or as extras on Burn Notice. After getting my sandwich at Moj...

Sports radio has been discussing the use of alderall by football players and their suspension by the league for using performance enhancing drugs.  I think this is an issue that needs to be discussed and the application of the term performance enhancing may need some modification. The long term use of drugs and many other modern conviniences in the name of sport, entertainment, business, education, medicine is almost impossible to fathom.  While I may live longer and with a better quality of life according to some I find my self rebelling against some aspects of progress as it currently practiced. Lance Armstrong is a posterboy for bad behavior when it comes to doping in his sport and he has only been convicted after the fact by improvements in the methodolgy of testing for banned substances and confirming testimony by teammates. The use of steroids in baseball has made a mockery of records related to homeruns and pitching and more than a few players each year are suspen...

I was looking for a school book on Saturday, Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelen for Lisvey who is in 6th grade at Carver Middle School in Miami. Before buying the book I read the reviews on the intenet.  I don't remember reading anything like this in school and especially in sixth grade.  This was a watered down story of an arranged marriage in India, before it became one of the world's largest economies.  Usually, I walk to Barnes and Noble, they were sold out of the book and offered to order it for me, the clerk said it was available at their Coral Gables Store.  Fall weather even if it doesn't get to Miami until Thanksgiving, made the walk back home pleasant.  Saturday morning at the bookstore these days includes some one reading to kids, or a quick stop at the cafe which is in store and a good place to download something for your reader.  The next closest place that said it had the book was Target.  Parking wasn't as bad as I thought but they...

I survived yesterday.  Food was really good.  A bottle of red wine helped the process along.  We were three and a small turkey breast, sweet potatoes and a Dominican potato salad were enough for yesterday and there is plenty left for sandwiches today.  I said thanks for all my gifts yesterday but probably don't say it often enough.  I work enough, have plenty to eat, a roof over my head and can pay all my bills.  I wish I would sleep a little better but that is a tiny issue in the scope of things. Rather than football on TV or going to the mall to shop, I watched people in California and across the country chase a pick six carryover at Hollywood Park on TVG.  I was a tiny part of action on a pool that totaled over 3.2 million dollars.  I had four winners out of six races and had the satisfaction of breaking even for the day on my gambling.  Most gamblers would call that a reasonably good day. I've written about this many times....

On November 16th 2012 at about 8:05 AM, on the corner of SW 56 Street and 92 Avenue I had a Florida Lottery moment.  Strewn on the grass on the corner lot were a lot of CASH 3 lottery tickets.  I immediately went into race track stooper mode to see if there were any live tickets(doubtful) but who knows. There were at least 25 $1.00 tickets all using 672 for the selected number on November 15th 2012.  There may have been other reasons for this improbable wager but my initial reaction was: Dude! What were you thinking?  There are other ways to blow $25.00?  Why didn't you chose 25 different numbers for a better but still very small chance to win $500 rather than blowing it all on one number.  I realize $12,500 is a lot of money if it had hit but according to the odds you should have been paid $25,000.  Still a lousy bet.  This is not a good use of venture capital, rent money, or milk money and you threw your dead wood out the window. Further res...

I know you can't go backwards on many things.  However if I had known that the building of a the new baseball stadium would have lead to the Miami Marlins dumping almost all their starting line up, firing their manager and who knows what else since the end of the season, I think we would have been better off not building a new stadium and maybe living without a major league baseball team. I watched the demolition of the Orange Bowl and the building of the new ballpark.  So much for build it and they will come. At least the old Orange Bowl with all its faults and lacking sky boxes, inadequate plumbing and other issues had some history behind it. Whether it was the focus of New Years Day, University of Miami Football, the glory days of the Miami Dolphins, or other big events in Miami, the place had good history in a place that needs good history. Instead for a lot of people and for a long time this is going to be a place where the people in Miami were screwed around, tak...

From the New Yorker Magazine we learn that a switch of 142,262 votes in five swing states, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado could have meant a Romney win in the Electoral College and a 3,082,474 popular vote victory by President Obama.  In 2008 McCain would have needed to switch a little more than 500,000 in seven states to change the outcome of the race. The election that now seems to have been not so close, was closer than many who will look at the results and see Obama 332 - Romney 206. I don't think the country would take kindly to even one more presidential election where the loser of the popular vote could be trumped by a challengers victory in the Electoral College. We need to fix this.

I would like to thank everyone that serves in this country's military services.  They have done things I am unable to do.  Thanks might also be given to first responders that run towards problems rather than away from them. The country would be will advised to look at the need to institute some form of public service available for everyone.  Registering for the draft has an interesting facet.  If you don't register, you are not eligible for student loans, Pell Grants, and some other public services. Serving in the military, teaching in under served areas, helping provide services to our increasingly elderly population or other areas of service that benefit the public should be acceptable public services to qualify for governmental services.  Opting out of service, could mean opting out of governmental benefits. There is one intangible benefit to a program like this.  Everybody has some skin in the game.  More than a few policy fail...

I've heard that 30% of advertising is a waste and that it is hard to determine what part of the 30% is the waste.  Maybe the amount of money spent in political advertising will self correct because of the lack of response it got or maybe not much will change because the opposition also advertised to counter act the other.  They cancelled each other out.  Nobody will disarm unilaterally. 

I think the first think the parties should be able to agree on is making voting more convenient by extending early voting and doing it in a consistent manner.  Nobody should be made to stand in line for hours.  The game playing with the vote as practiced by the Governor of Florida must stop, in not accommodating the voters of Florida, the electoral process in Florida is suspect and will continue to be until corrected. The lines caused by the shortening of hours for early voting and the logistical problems of long ballots did not take a rocket scientist to predict and could have been minimized with a few timely decisions by the Governor.  Why did we go backwards in Florida?  Why did we elect Rick Scott?

There are a bunch of political science ideas floating around these days.  One of the simpler ideas would be to make it easier, quicker, and more convenient to vote.  Instead, it is more difficult, takes longer in some ways, and may not be as convenient as it might be.  Sadly this seems to be something partisan about the way "the vote" is interpreted. It is clear that the way rules are interpreted regarding voting do not apply evenly.  Some places give an hour off with pay to vote during working hours, others do not.  I've had to work in places where that was interpreted that the employee has an hour off and it did not matter whether they voted or not.  All lines are not created equally and it would be nice if the people in charge of running elections tried to make the process a lot easier.  Some polling places in Florida did not have enough parking for the lines they experienced and parking tickets were issued in the area.  There is somethin...

Having lived through one disaster and more than a few hurricanes in Miami I have a lot of sympathy for what the folks in New Jersey, NewYork and maybe even West Virginia have gone through and what they will continue to experience for a while for some and a long time for some others. What you once took for granted may now become something of a matter of survival.  Gasoline for cars, electricity for a lot of other things, water, and maybe a cup of coffee.  Others have had their houses destroyed or severely damaged.  I listened on the radio to houses being tagged for demolition while others may "only" need repairs.  This is the beginning of a complicated process and you will need patience and a little bit of luck because what you think your insurance company or the government will do might not meet your needs. I'm sure my church will have a special collection for hurricane relief.  I added some money to my grocery bill for the Red Cross.  The New ...