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.