Sunday Morning Coming Down

I'm letting this subscription lapse. But I must say the magazine has brought up some interesting nuggets to think about, and the latest issue is no exception. The magazine comments about the American use of the death penalty.  The statistics say executions are down and the public support for the death penalty is down as well. It might be a fitting punishment for the the worst murders, but does it make sense. Evidence that murders are down where murderers are subject to the death penalty doesn't fly. The death penalty does a poor job of deterring murders. Maybe a few murders are avoided, but its also possible that a few innocents can be convicted of murders and to execute them wrongly is a mistake that can't be corrected. The process to avoid mistakes is very expensive and drawn out over many years and the newer more "humane" executions might not be so humane if you are to believe those that are unsure about the use of drugs for executions. Even getting these...

There is a liquor store in Hialeah where you can buy flasks for cruises or trips to places where the price of drink might be pricey but you might want to fire up that Coke on the cheap. It's also a place of political comentary.  The sign along Le Juene Road says two mayors, the same crime, but only one will do time. The recent mayors of the City of Hialeah have been colorful characters.  The last two mayors may eventually proven to be loan sharks. Julio Robaina and his wife are on trial for tax evasion and possibly the current mayor may be similarly charged. Julio Robaina's wife it is reported to have being told to be on the lookout for an $800,000 payment that would be hitting their personnel account by her husband.  In court she said she had no idea where the money came from and what her husband did to earn it.  It has been determined that the payment was for lobbying an adjacent city about a major real estate project. The current mayor, Carlos Hernandez ad...

This is one of those thing that isn't really news but I guess that the Boston Marathon went well enough that folks with fake numbers were caught running in the race. Road Racing and especially big races are big business along with all the other things that jogging is or was.  I have run in probably one hundred races over the years. I finished the Orange Bowl Marathon in 1983. My time was 4:33.  I really don't remember how many people I beat in the race.  I didn't get a medal, I got a tee shirt. North Carolina Blue and the finish line was in the Orange Bowl. A victory lap after a lot of training. I still have the tee shirt. Lots of folks ran than in races unofficially without numbers. Rosie Ruiz took the subway in New York and made a name for herself that will live in infamy. I ran in the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th a long time ago.  50,000+ runners/joggers and you qualified for a tee shirt if you ran the ran the race in less than an hour.  I...

A few months ago I started getting e-mails regarding houses for sale in Key West and the latest is doozy! $650,000 for a frame house in Old Town Key West.  Built in 1923 it's old and pictures of the inside look just as old and crappy as the outside.  At a little over $1,000 a square foot this fixer upper is just what I need.  527 square feet of Old Key West located in a wonderful neighborhood within walking distance of galleries, restaurants, schools, and churches. Then I remembered the last visit to Key West.  A long drive, pretty ocean views, an interesting place or two for a drink and some good seafood. A nice place to visit but living on the "rock" makes no sense.  832 Johnson Lane, Key West, Florida 33040, no thank you. Yesterday, I made a beer mistake.  Beer bottlers are following in the footsteps of the coffee packagers.  I think I'm going to stick with good old American brewers even if they are owned by multinational conglomerates.  ...

My experience of pay equity for women is a mixed bag.  Through a great deal of my time working for county government I had an immediate supervisor that was a women and during almost all that time my supervisor made more money than I did. Three times in a career of over thirty years, the executive director of the agency was a women. Twice during my career, women came from an outside agency and blocked promotion from inside the agency.  The nature of these appointments could be rationalized as political in nature as new mayors or county managers were hired and their people were located in our agency. Governmental work is pretty much cut and dried.  Job titles and salaries are related to educational background and experience and the minimums are established. There are always exceptions to the rule and it was interesting to watch the gyrations that would go on if "the boss" wanted to get approval for a new position, change somebodies job title to justify an increase in sa...

I just got done reading a Facebook posting about the time off teachers get and how they paid a 12 month salary and don't work twelve months.  They get a lot of time off during the summer and get breaks at Christmas and in the spring as well. The amount people get paid, how often they get, their hourly rate of pay, and how they are paid and much they pay in taxes is always in play and everyone has their opinion. I'm sure we all know someone who is overpaid, underpaid, doesn't pay enough in taxes, or charges a really obscene amount of money per hour. The school year now is a historical anomly based on our agrarian past.  A great teacher could probably make more money in another field.  Crappy teachers should be encouraged to look for another career.  Some really are job basis folks that work lots of hours beyond the time they spend in the classroom and others are just hourly folks and sadly not the professionals they think they are. The biggest question and it ...

Something is wrong with the way the IRS evaluates its employees.  I'm sure I never asked any of the folks that I supervised if they had problems with the IRS.  I do know that one guy was seriously behind on some child support payments, but he was a good worker and screwing with his job would not have helped the situation as he was working on the problem and making regular payments to the court. But then again, I didn't work for the IRS. This might not be fair but I can say without a doubt that IRS employees with unpaid taxes need to be treated differently than other citizens.  And according to reports today, they shouldn't be eligible for bonuses until their tax issues are resolved.  Problems like these give everyone even more excuses than they already have about paying anything to the tax man. Something short of show trials and summary executions might not help the situation, but if this kind of punishment crosses my mind, as a card carrying liberal, I can ima...