Sunday Morning Coming Down

I'm generally unconcerned about the possibility of contracting ebola.  In some ways I think the reporting has gone overboard in this country but in some ways I wonder if there is any choice but to over report the best information known about the public health aspects of the disease.  Panic and hysteria are difficult to control once they get started.  If there is no drumbeat to put what is known in the best known public health perspective out in the public, politics will take over and that will help nobody.

The Federal Reserve bank says they are going to keep short term interest rates low for the foreseeable future or some similar wording which means that keeping  money in a savings account or a certificate of deposit will probably lose you money in that the price of some things will continue to go up and you will pay some taxes on whatever interest you might receive. Frankly, I'm not sure how much people should be paid for cash that they might have on hand.  Back in the bad old days of communism there was a joke that was more of a truism than humor. "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us".  There were always shortages of food and things that people needed and that was the way the books were balanced: some kind of enforced misery for a lot of folks.  The issue is very complicated and not very rational on any level. I live in a really neat neighborhood that is gentrifying.  The housing stock, mostly one story ranch housing mixed with two bedroom apartmen...

The Giant pitcher was in such a zone during the 2014 post season it is hard to comprehend.  Series MVP without question.  52 innings pitched and an era of 1.03 and "the closer" in the seventh game of the 2014 World Series.  Bumgarner carried  his team almost single handily to their 3rd World Championship in five years.  I don't know what the guy can do for an encore.  Had I been the KC third base coach in the 9th inning last night, I think I would have hoped for a bad throw from the outfield and sent Alex Gordon home.  It would have been too much to hope for another hit to tie the game. Sandoval and Pence also played great.  Timely hitting and the guys just did what needed to be done. It was announced that the Cubs signed Joe Maddon.  The Cubs just went from pretender to contender in the NL Central.

David Brooks columnist, just wrote a piece that suggests that political beliefs may evoke an even stronger prejudice than racial prejudice, at least according to some social science surveys. In 1960 only 5% of those surveyed indicated displeasure with a mixed marriage with a democrat marrying a republican, by 2010, about 49% of republicans and 33% of democrats said they would mind. He may have a point.  I doubt a member of my UU church would get a fair hearing if he or she quoted Rush Limbaugh on anything or even admitted to having a radio accident and listened to the program.  If liberals can't listen to folks with an alternative point of view or vice versa is there any wonder our political system seems so dysfunctional. I am sure there are best practices that would benefit everyone that are ignored because they are politically impossible.  Gun control, health care reform, right sizing the military, campaign reform, growing the middle class, improving education, re...

The biggest group of slackers this election season are the non voters.  Why would you willingly throw away your right to have a say in things by not voting.  Not voting gives others power they wouldn't have if you voted. Turn out and vote.

Joe Maddon late of the Tampa Bay Rays is now a free agent.  According to reports he reached an impasse with the Rays front office and has opted out of his contract. This is an opportunity for just about any team in Major League Baseball to get a really good manager. Maddon's agent said they would be willing to sit out a year to wait for the right deal. The Dodgers and Cubs look like the main contenders from my point of view.  The Dodgers need to keep winning in the battle for fans in Southern California.  The Dodgers have hired Andrew Friedman of the Rays for a big front office job and Maddon and Friedman were like ham and eggs in St. Pete. The Cubs have a nucleus of good young players and pitchers.  Maddon took the Rays to the World Series, maybe it can happen again. Maybe the biggest pronouncement won't be who won the World Series, it might just be the Chicago Cubs have a new manager.

The Halloween Week and Fantasy Fest in Key West is a  "Superbowl" of  sorts. It gets very pricey, crowded, and from the pictures I've seen pretty raunchy, and another excuse to drink, which isn't really needed because "happy hour" never really ends in Key West. The Miami Herald wonders if it is getting too raunchy? Hello?  Me thinks the Herald doth protest too much.  For one brief shining moment, Key West, Florida has out done just about everywhere in the world for debauchery, except maybe some really drunken brawls before during and after home football games in the SEC or The Big Ten or until recently the Columbus Day Regatta and Boat Party or Spring Break on the Red Neck Riviera. It's not that it's raunchy, it's just too crowded, and a victim of it's own success at excess.

Front page above the fold in today's Miami Herald is the story of former Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman.  The guy used his position to steer money to himself and his wife through manipulating various real estate deals.  $200,000 seems to have been the cost for serious access.  Convicted, the former mayor is awaiting sentencing On one hand it might be argued that lobbying for a health clinic that served poor folks in Homestead and pushing a real estate deal that benefited a private for profit school that would provide training in the medical field for South Dade residents are legitimate public policies for a mayor to pursue, but the question remains should he and his wife profit from the related lobbying and real estate deals. This kind of behavior is really ethically challenging, but it shines a light on something in a way folks need to understand.  Money and governing are often way too close to each other and campaign contributions can't be far behind in corrupti...

A new CVS drugstore, next door, and a Walgreens across the street, and the independent pharmacist at Allen's Drug Store on the corner or Red and Bird Roads calls it quits.  Allen's Drugs was a throwback Thursday with a diner, watchmaker, and a post office window almost from its beginning in 1954. A piece of my Miami history won't be taken down completely.  The drug store prescription customers have had their business transferred to the CVS Store but the diner and the medical equipment business will stay open. This blog is named after a Sunday Morning trip for breakfast after a big UM football win on Saturday Evening.  UM Football coach  Howard Schnellenberger and I had breakfast at the counter and it was very early.  He was going to work and I needed some coffee, scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast. These days urban renewal is more likely to include razing a house built in the early 50's and rebuilding something with a second floor and a garage big enough...

The guy in the orange Miami Marlin Jersey at the World Series got a lot of press in Miami today and according to reports he is a long time season ticket holder.  How folks spend their money, is their own business.  OMG someone is actually talking about the Miami Marlins.  Royals brass wanted to stash him in a sky box, unsuccessfully. The television ratings for the game were dismal if you think everybody or maybe more folks should be watching the World Series like we did in "the good old days". I've been to four baseball games in person this year and find baseball in person entertaining, low key, and a good place to visit throughout the game.  I think the relative lack of interest in baseball at this time of year is almost entirely related to the calendar.  If a New York Team or Boston was playing Chicago or Los Angeles there would be more interest.  But up until last night's game, the playoff games have been interesting.  I heard someone complain a...

This morning I drove to the Coral Gables Library to vote "early".  No lines but the parking lot at the library was almost full with cars of the folks I like calling the human billboards, t-shirts blazing with their candidate's name.  I really don't like walking that gauntlet.  No Scott or Crist Folks on the early shift.  The results won't be known for about two weeks, but at least mentally, I'll skip through the commercials.  On the way out of the library, I made a right hand turn so I would not have to pass by the ground troops littering the parking lots close to the main entry for the library and get some steps in for my daily goal of 10,000.  Note to self, next time try the Segovia Avenue Entrance.  If there isn't a line, you will avoid the palm card, billboard folks. Voting, they gave me ballot #67.  I should have asked what #67 meant.  Was it the 67th ballot issued early in precinct  #641 or the 67th ballot issued at the library o...

With the advent of early voting and a lot of folks voting absentee, getting out the vote is a longer term process.  The daily phone calls have begun and wonder of wonders, they stop when they find out that you have voted.

Allowing early voting is a good thing.  Making registering to vote more convenient and easier are also good things.  The democratic process where folks can register the opinion through voting is one of the things that is to the good in this country.  In most issues I think local control is best. Banking on apathy, local control does not always mean everybody has a voice.  Less affluent folks can vote but there is always something in the way that may make them less likely to vote.  During my career working in government, way before early voting, it was easy to register people to vote.  My boss sent everyone who worked for the agency to be trained to register people to vote.  It was just something we did, along with helping folks find a job.  Having a voter id at the time was a good form of identification.  It was a good practice. Miami is a very cosmopolitan place. Most cities are.  Technology changes and laws change over time.  ...

I do remember some crazy celebrations after Mountaineer Victories.  Goal posts down University, bonfires, couch fires, and now tear gas as the celebration was close to threatening Downtown, Morgantown, West Virginia. The biggest victory in WVU history with the Big 12 as the Mounties beat the Baylor Bears or maybe the Bears collapsed. Either way, the celebration was eventually called a riot. WVU President Gee, gee whiz, tear gas, arrests. Score another one for College Football.  The celebration seemed to be contained to Morgantown, however, I'm sure there were happy WVU fans everywhere.

A lot has been written about cheating in horse racing.  Mostly this is about using banned substances to improve the performance of horses.  I'm not a horse pharmacist but there really is a need to make sure that the use of performance enhancing drugs by trainers is stopped.  This is more than just a noble idea.  If the sport is going to survive anybody connected with using these drugs needs to be banned from the sport.  Another noble idea, but in a sport where horses and trainers follow various racing circuits in many different states, each with their own laws, and abilities to enforce their own rules and some very muddled ideas about due process, the system is going to have some very serious holes. Even people in the industry seem to talk out of both sides of their mouth. The publisher of Track Magazine publishes a press release announcing some new security measures at the race track where the All American Futurity and All American Derby are run. JM Mirac...

Nicholas Nehamas of the Miami Herald reports that 35,000 in Florida will be losing their health care coverage from the ACA because they have not provided proof of citizenship or residence status in the country. They are almost 30% of the 115,000 that are losing their coverage nation wide. Hopefully people who are eligible will persevere and submit the needed documentation and get their coverage reinstated. The Sports Page lists 37 college football games that will be on TV from 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight on broadcast and cable channels in South Florida.  The UM has the weekend off before it plays Virginia Tech this Thursday.  FSU/Notre Dame will be the most hyped, hopefully it will live to the hype.  Baseball resumes Tuesday 8:07pm. Carnival Cruise Line had a passenger who might(?) have handled lab samples from an Ebola patient was kept in isolation in her cabin and the ship was delayed from docking so long that the ship left to return to Galveston, Texas. I wond...

I missed it, but the debate was delayed because of a fan.  The rules said no electronic devices. Governor Scott balked at starting the debate.  A "fan gap", really people, this is Florida.  My ceiling fans run almost 24/7.  The Washington Post says Charlie doesn't like sweating. Bozos both.  I'll vote for Charlie and hope he doesn't flip back to being a republican while in office and have a hard time believing Rick has done much of anything for jobs, education, or healthcare even though he takes credit for their recovery.

The Kansas City Royals are going to the 2014 World Series.  8-0 in the post season starting with a wild Wild Card win against Oakland, mowing down the Angels, and beating the Orioles four straight. Four more victories and the Royals are the World Champs.  In the post season the magic number is now 4 more wins. The team average is 6 feet tall and 202 lbs. The small market team is on a small ball streak and it is fitting in some ways that Lorenzo Cain, the most valuable in the ALCS has one of the smaller contracts on the team making about $546,000. The Giants are one game away from finishing off the Cardinals.  The World Series may not be a ratings bonanza, but it should be some good baseball. Baseball is a game of streaks.  It's been 29 years since the Royals made it to the World Series and as one streak ends I hope the Royals beat the Giants even if it takes seven games.

Way up the cable is the new Fusion Network.  Spanish content and mostly English language or subtitles. The new network showed the documentary: Peloteros which followed two young Dominican prospects as they are being groomed to sign Major League Baseball contracts when they reach the magic age of 16. Dominicans like their baseball.  The documentary says that 1 in 5 players in the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues are from the Republica Dominicana. Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, and Hanley Ramirez are all Dominican.  Playing baseball is a way out of poverty and the best prospects are paid big bonuses that float the boat of player development on the island.  Baseball players are a major export product and the kids learn early that they are both players and commodities.  Agents and coaches also get their cuts in along the way. The documentary spends a great deal of time discussing birth certificates, school records and identity. We in Miami are familiar wit...

During my last two years at the University of Miami I was very active in politics.  I volunteered for the McGovern Campaign and did work for people running for state office.  While working at the Miami Herald my co-workers joked with me about my support of George McGovern.  This was a long time ago and the solid south meant being a Democrat, except for presidential elections. Carl Singleton, was the State Legislator in my local district and I had the chance to talk to him during a visit to work to pick up some campaign art work he would be using in a newspaper ad.  I was wearing my McGovern button and asked him if he would be supporting the top of the ticket. He said "No",  took his art work and left before I could follow up with "why".  This was all the confirmation I needed about the polls.  McGovern true believers were on their own.  No money, no candidate time, and every other Democrat running in the other direction. McGovern was sm...

The Director of the NIH says we would have had an Ebola vaccine by now, were it not for budget cuts to the agency.  He may be correct or maybe we would be a lot further along in researching this disease which is causing havoc in West Africa, or we might have used the money elsewhere or worked on another public health crisis. I understand the posturing and his comments but a few weeks ago we were dithering about sending army doctors to back up an overwhelmed public health system in Africa. We would all be better served if the goal was something beyond just getting reelected.

I watched this horse break his maiden at Gulfstream Park last year.  The sire was Pulpit and the colt was out of Minimalist.  The horse's grandma was named Preach and the great grandpa on the Daddy's side was Seattle Slew. I'm impressed with this Unitarian's breeding.  The horse can run the distance.

Yesterday Reverend Wendy Pantoja got a little bit exercised over Columbus Day.  The real discoverer of America was Leif Ericsson if you believe the Scandinavians but that isn't today's lesson folks. Columbus and his treatment of the folks already in the Caribbean was not very Christian. Reverend Wendy of the UU Miami is not alone in her concern about Columbus Day. By Chris Legband / Breeze Editor Believe it or not, Native American people typically don’t celebrate the day they were enslaved, exploited and nearly exterminated on the supposed day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus landed on a small island in the Caribbean Sea. Although the historical perspective and record largely shows that Europeans took what they wanted in terms of resources and exploited Native peoples through enslavement and genocide, the more polished portrayal is that of a quaint first Thanksgiving dinner between Natives and Europeans. The bottom line is that without our contributions they wo...

The City of Sweetwater was proud of a private developer that built a fifteen story, five hundred unit apartment building across the street from Florida International University.  Affordable housing for students and the owners gave tenants parking passes for the garage on university property and a shuttle bus.  The building has only twenty five parking spaces on site. City leaders which according to their own code require 1.5 parking spaces per apartment, thought they had covered their bases with the shuttle bus/garage arrangement with the university.  The shuttle bus is inconvenient and crossing four lanes of traffic after dark is peligroso.  Students park overnight on City streets and the City of Sweetwater responds with tickets and towing illegally parked cars in the neighborhood. There are plans for a pedestrian over pass, but that make take a couple of years. This tidbit courtesy of the Miami Herald.

Just saw a post about a no tipping restaurant that was going to pay its employees about $13.00 an hour and provide benefits.  I hope that works out.  I worked for tips in a past life and some days were great and other days it was fortunate that the restaurant also provided a free meal, for which they paid me and then deducted it from my pay.  Just like the tip sometimes the meal was great and other times I think the prep cook ran out of ideas for leftovers. Tipping is an idea whose time has past.  Some customers don't tip at all, some tip a small amount, and some servers probably don't deserve a tip.  I'm always amused when I go pick up a pizza at a joint near my house that there is a tip jar for the person behind the cash register. Charge the right price and pay the workers appropriately.  $2.18 plus tips isn't the minimum wage at a lot of places. I went out for a beer with a cousin when visiting relatives in Canada.  I offered to pay for the fi...

The Doral City Counsel delayed a decision on extending benefits to domestic partners of city workers on Wednesday Night, Luigi Boria, mayor is quoted in a Miami Herald article as saying the benefits would promote illegal acts like adultery, fornication, and lewd and lascivious acts. Then again they might not have anything to do with adultery, fornication, lewd and lascivious acts.

Bill Murray, Mark Harmon, and Robin Williams, just to name a few were born in 1951 and more than likely were part of the Class of 1969. Somehow or other I would have guessed that Jesse Ventura and Angelica Houston would have been older but those two are also part of the Class of 1969. The “Draft Lottery” happened.  KC of KC and Sunshine Band was warming up in Hialeah, and according to my sources Rush Limbaugh was born in January, 1969.  Al Franken of comedy and politics in Minnesota was born in 1951 as well. Sometimes this is what happens when you get lost in the Web.

Is it any surprise that part time workers working less than 30 hours per week usually don't get paid health care from their employers and in Walmart's case will be losing whatever coverage they were receiving from their employer. Shopping at Walmart is the exception rather than the rule for me.  I have bought a couple of pairs of cheap gym shoes at the store during the last year and took advantage of a sale on toilet paper as I walked through the store. Management is trying to boost profits because sales are flat for the company.  Lowering employee costs may boost profits for share holders in general and for the Walton Family that inherited stock from their father. It has been widely reported that the low wages paid employees qualifies those employees for food stamps and now the medicaid program or possibly coverage under the ACA.  This practice is not unheard of in the retail sector and to argue that Walmart, Target, Amazon and just about everybody else that sells ...

Just saw some figures that are amazing.  The NFL is paid $1.84 per viewer on TV and the NBA is $5.04 per viewer on TV.  This means advertisers will have to pay a pretty penny to get what ever they are hawking on these games and then hope folks watch the games.  Or as things go these days, you will pay more for cable service.  One of these days I think I'm going to start shopping for alternatives. I wonder how many folks will be watching the Miami Heat this year without Lebron. And on the other hand a monthly cable bill is more convenient and you get a lot more choices than a live performance of baseball, football, basketball, and the tickets to those games aren't cheap either and that doesn't include parking, food, and incidentals. And some of those miscreants are way overpaid, and that may include some of those folks that actually attend games.

Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald had some questions for Hillary Clinton while she was multi tasking signing books, raising money and campaigning for Charlie Crist.  Unfortunately for Caputo and three other reporters, they were asked to leave the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel.  Given what gets said and reported at fund raisers, it's a touchy subject. Caputo calls it image control, call it politics and the Crist Folks raised $1,000,000 and there wasn't a single photo of the former governor with the former Secretary of State in the newspaper.  Who knows, who got pictures will stay with the invited guests. Caputo pleads let's be open to the press. Nobody likes being used, but it sure happens.

Bill Gates is worried that the whole health care system in Africa is shutting down as a result of Ebola and the panic surrounding it.  That isn't a big stretch it Liberia where you have about three doctors per 100,000 people and in the United States there are about 230 doctors per 100,000 people. This is just one measure of inequality and for every one's health it needs some serious work. Bill Gates is donating $50 million to help stop the spread and provide treatment for Ebola in Africa. A little can go a lot further over there but the problem is spreading like wildfire.

Jean Claude Duvalier dead of a heart attack at 63 in Port Au Prince, Haiti according to a report by the Huffington Post. Baby Doc, son of Papa Doc Duvalier, age 19 became President for Life at the death of his father in 1971. The son continued the corrupt and brutal regime started by his father.  The Duvalier Family is almost single handily responsible for Haiti becoming the poster child for "failed states"  He left under the cover of night to exile in France after ruling Haiti for about 25 years.  Except for a very small elite in the country, it seems like anybody that could get out of the country left or has tried to leave. With good reason, there is still very little reason to stay in Haiti if you have any reasonable alternatives. The country has always been poor, corrupt, and full of conflict since the Haitians revolted in 1804 and overthrew their French masters. "On Jan. 16, 2011, Duvalier made his surprise return. He said he wanted to help in the reconstructi...

I watch the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs and really like Mike Rowe.  The guy is down to earth.  Two summers in the waste water treatment plant in Bensenville gave me an appreciation of dirty jobs.  Sometimes I wonder how I never got cholera working at that place. Mike Rowe has also posted a couple of things on Facebook that ring clear to me. Mike says following your passion is bad advice because as a form of wisdom it is neither incontrovertible and applicable to everyone.  Take two aspirins and call me in the morning isn't always good medicine either. The real clincher about jobs and work in general is that often you can find a job that you really like, are good at it, and it is never something you dreamed about doing. I dreamed of playing baseball, basketball, golf, being a jockey?, I've done almost all those things but never would have been able to make a living at any of these jobs and I still like baseball, basketball, golf, football and horse racin...

Swiftly, Julia Pierson has resigned as the head of the Secret Service.  Obviously there have been too many secrets in the agency.  On one hand the public and people who might want to harm the President, his family, or any of the former presidents and their family don't need to know the agencies failings to encourage copy cats, but internally these issues do not seem to have been addressed properly.  Ms. Pierson, a thirty year law enforcement veteran was chosen about eighteen months ago to clean up an agency with more than a few agents that partied to excess on at least one foreign trip. Protecting our presidents is a full time job.  Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy were killed by assassins while in office and according to Wikipedia there have been at least twenty other plots to kill presidents.  President Regan is fortunate not to be listed as a president killed in office and virtually every president in the modern era has been subject to death threats....