Re-election

Bill Clinton was labelled the comeback kid based on his ability to morph politically in a way that increased his popularity with the voters.  His ability earned him several election victories when he was thought to be out of contention.  His example may be the blueprint that Barrack Obama is now using.  My fear is that he too might find success .

It is difficult for me to believe how fickle the electorate is.  Just 2 months ago a dramatic message was sent that we are not happy with nationalized health care, government take over of private industry and out of control spending.  But suddenly, the man responsible for all these things has an approval rating over 50% and climbing.  What changed?

Arizona changed the momentum.  Obama, to his credit, handled the ridiculous nonsense coming from his left wing constituency very well.  He appeared to be a common sense leader who was more interested in calming the storm than fanning the flames.  Good for him.

But what else changed?  Nothing at all.  In the State of the Union address, he assured us he remains the liberal big spender that believes government should continue to grow.  This is just the opposite of what America said in November 2010. 

Has the idol worship restarted?  Does the ability to look presidential and give a good speech outweigh his policies and intentions?  If it does, we will probably have 4 more years to reap the consequences.

Speech Impediments

The movie named "The King's Speech" deals with how an English King's stuttering problem was dealt with.  I suggest that most of us have speech impediments, just not as severe as stuttering.  Here are a few examples.

As a child, my niece Heather could not form the sound for the letter L.  Instead, the W sound came out of her mouth.  Because of this she repeatedly mispronounced her cuz Lyndy's name.  During visits we would try to cure her by making her form the L sound several times before saying Lyndy.  We would ask her to repeat "La, La, Lyndy" but it always came out "La, La, Wendy".  Luckily, that speech impediment was one she rapidly grew out of.

Memphis seems to be a breeding ground for speech impediments. Heather's sister Kelsey believes that "Y'all" is a proper contraction.  It's "Y'all be nice", "Y'all shut up", "Y'all" do this, "Y'all" do that.  I prefer to believe it is a classic speech impediment, and not the product of the community college she attends.

My lovely wife has a speech impediment.  She cannot say the word "Lozenge", as in throat lozenge.  It always comes out as "Lozenger".  You can prod her to drop the R, but it makes no difference.  Lozenge is lozenger in her brain.

It has been pointed out that I too may have a speech impediment.  I have travelled to Warshington before, and last night I warshed the car.  I prefer to think that Daniel W.  forgot to add the R to wash when the dictionary was written.

Important tax cuts

Surprisingly, the local paper sometimes referred to as the Falling Star or Red Star printed a letter to the editor written by yours truly.  The letter went something like this:
I have noticed a number of letters in The Star expressing anger over the so called George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. I wonder whether those writers are rabid partisans knowingly repeating a lie, or are simply useful in perpetuating class warfare.


Anyone with a modicum of awareness would know that retaining existing tax rates for everyone cannot be construed as a tax cut for the wealthy. Yet so many think the Congress gave tax cuts to the rich before they adjourned.


Debate on whether retention of the tax rates is good for the economy is welcome. History from President John F. Kennedy on has repeatedly proven that allowing earners to keep more of what they earn stimulates growth and results in higher revenue to the federal coffers, not less.


Taking more money from the productive has a stifling effect. We cannot afford the latter in this economic climate.

Frank Bryant
Basehor

As is typical of the Star, they took the liberty of editing my comments to make them less offensive to their kook left readership.  The original second sentence of the first paragraph read:  I wonder whether those writers are rabid partisans knowingly repeating a lie, or are simply useful idiots perpetuating class warfare.

On prior letters they have performed more dramatic edits that changed the intent of my letter, so I guess this wasn't so bad.  I didn't think the term useful idiot was that offensive.  I mean Lenin, one of the gods of the kook left, used it to describe shallow thinkers who stand idle and do not challenge the powerful as they "sell the less powerful the rope that will be used to hang them".  I thought the term was pretty accurate.

Judging the Judges

I missed the Wednesday season 10 premiere of American Idol due to a DVR snafu.  I was able to watch the Thursday program which became my first impression of the new judges, Randy, JayLo and Steven.

One of my attractions to past AI seasons was Simon Cowell's sharp wit, and spot on, sometimes harsh appraisals of contestant's auditions and performances.  He and I usually shared the same opinion of the show's talent, which was the primary reason why I believe that I would be the perfect replacement for Cowell.  But it was not to be.  Instead, Steven Tyler was selected as the Simon replacement and JayLo to replace Kara.

I was open minded about the Tyler selection.  I am familiar with his past in Aerosmith.  I always thought of him as a skinny little weeny-boy with an over sized mouth, but could see some potential as Simon's replacement.  After last night, I am more convinced he is a weeny-boy and nothing more.

The JayLo for Kara swap is also a disappointment.  I saw her as Paula Abdul's younger sister, and did not expect anything different.  She did not surprise me.  When JayLo speaks, I will be using the Paula Abdul fast-forward tactic perfected in past years to bypass the brainless blather.  Kara always impressed me with her deep knowledge of the music business.  I suppose JayLo might also have a clue, but there was no indication of that last night.

My assessment, paraphrasing how Simon Cowell might say it, "JayLo and Steven, I think you are in trouble and won't be with us for season 11.  I, for one, say good riddance."

Chris Matthews

This really couldn't get more ironic.  On the Tuesday following the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, Chris Matthews, joined by two liberal talk radio hosts on Hardball, essentially blamed…Mark Levin for creating the climate of hate that led to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords.  As the MSNBC host proclaimed: “People like Mark Levin…every time you listen to them are furious, furious at the left with anger that’s just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial, they’re just in some rage, every night, with ugly talk…

Turns out the shooter, Jared Loughner, was a left wing kook who hated George Bush, so there was a much better chance that he listened in to Hardball than Mark Levin.  I think it is safe to say that left wing kooks are far more insane than right wing kooks.  It is a pity that hacks like Matthews speak out before they think or acquire the first fact.  The egg on his face serves him right.

2011 Jayhawks

I have ignored my blog for several days, and realize that I will probably ignore it more over the next couple of weeks.  You see, this is the time of year that I work for the Human Resources organization at my place of employment.  My next 2 weeks are full of Individual Performance Management discussions with each of my employees.  I actually like the meetings, but with 23 employees it takes many days and become tedious.  I don't blog during the work day, but often do use my lunch hour to write.  Even this time will be consumed for several days.  So in an effort to produce one more before I go dark I picked on of my favorite subjects, the KU Jayhawk basketball team.

This team has loads of potential.  That's funny.  I mean they are 17-0, on a 69 game home win streak, they are the favorite to win their 7th consecutive conference championship, and have somewhere around 155 consecutive home sell outs.  That sounds like much more than potential.  But I will maintain they haven't proven anything so far this season.

All we really know about this team is that when the Morris brothers show up, KU is difficult to beat.  They have carried the team though scoring droughts this year.  Without their play, KU would have 3 or 4 losses so far.  After you get past the Morris boys,  the only bright spots are simply flashes.  Brady Morningstar had a couple of great games early in the year.  Tyrel Reid has been fairly consistent all year, but his level of play doesn't carry a team.  Thomas Robinson has been very good at times, but only recently.  The only consolation is that he seems to be coming on strong and his performance provides some hope they are starting to gel.

The two disappointments so far this year are Josh Selby and Tyshawn Taylor.  Bill Self has said that Tyshawn is his MVP for the first half of the season.  Sorry, but I don't see it.  Tyshawn has one problem, turnovers.  He is very talented and can make the big play, but for every big play there are 5 turnovers trying to make the big play.  Taylor has frustrated me for a couple years.  I can't make too big a deal about Selby as he is a freshman who missed the first 9 games.  After a great game 1, he seems to have checked out.  Self even benched him last weekend after a couple of turnovers.

The Jayhawks won their first two conference games, neither by convincing margins.  The only consolation is that 2 wins is much better than both Kansas State and Missouri who now have 2 conference losses.  After tonight, one will have 3 and may be out of the title race - their earliest check out in recent memory. 

My concern with Kansas is that they haven't had a win over a top 25 opponent all year.  They haven't had a convincing win over any quality opponent either.  Tonight they take on Baylor in Texas.  Baylor usually gives the Hawks a good game, and it would not surprise me if they give Kansas their first loss.  On Saturday, Texas comes to Allen Fieldhouse and the 69 game streak will be in jeopardy.  If it doesn't end then, I suspect Missouri or Kansas State will end it later in the year.  After all, that is all either team plays for.  I suspect that KU will suffer 2 or 3 losses before the conference season is over.  Even so, they will still win their 7th consecutive conference title.

This is not a dominate Kansas team.  They are probably a legitimate 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.  Still, for today they are ranked second in the nation, and that is better that Kansas State and Missouri who dropped out of the top 25 today for the first time all year.  So it's good to be a Jayhawk fan.  It sucks to be a Tiger or Wildcat fan.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

New Years Resolution #1

Just a few short days ago, I set my resolutions for 2011.  Number one on that list was:

Stop buying Apple products. Two iPods and an iPad should be enough for anyone. 

Many of you know that once I commit to a rigid set of resolutions, nothing will dissuade me from accomplishing those goals.  I am, if nothing else, an individual with amazing self-control.  I am constantly challenging myself to countless self improvement goals, such as eating more barbecue, and accepting more back rubs.  It's what I am all about.

So it is troubling that I question New Years Resolution #1 so early in the year.  There must be a great reason for me to sacrifice my self-improvement, or maybe put it on hold. 

There is. Have you seen Apple TV?  It is another of those bright shiny products the evil Steve Jobs tempts the world to buy.  On the surface, it's just another Netflix box.  I already have a Netflix box, 2 Blue Ray players capable of receiving Netflix streaming video, and an iPad that does the same.  Oh, yeah, and 3 computers that could do the same if I needed and you never know when you might need 7 different devices to connect to Netflix.  Oh yeah, you can stream Netfilx to an iPod so the total is now 9.

No, it's not the Netflix feature that has me interested in Apple TV.  It is also not the new TV channels available via Apple TV.  I already have many new channels available over the Blue Ray players and Netflix box.  I think I have spent a total of 30 seconds (time saved the first day of iPad ownership) watching those channels.  Since they are basically free, the content is pretty bad.  To get anything of value, a person must subscribe.  Count me out.

So what does Apple TV do that would cause me such great sacrifice?  Airplay.  How cool is that?  Airplay allows the Apple TV owner to play video, music or pictures from an iPod, iPad or network connected PC to the HDTV and home theatre system equipped with Apple TV.  I could listen to my iTunes library over my Bose system.  I could watch my home videos over my HDTV.  I could conceivably play Angry Birds on the iPad as it streams to the HDTV.  Now that is some enormous value.  You can also use iPad and iPods as remote controls to the Apple TV.  I would never need to search for the right remote control again.

But I must remain steadfast with my resolutions.  I cannot buy Apple TV this year.  This goes as a lesson in thinking through resolutions before making them.  If only I had checked the Apple web site before I made the resolution, I could be streaming to the Bose right now.  My bad.  I will just wait a year to watch those adorable grandchildren videos that are uselessly stored on my PC hard drive. 

But then waiting an entire year seems awfully harsh.  Maybe -T would like to buy Apple TV.  Honey?

Who is Crazier than the Other?



Sheriff Clarence Dupnik



Jared Lee Loughner

For those who haven't seen Crazy Clarence on the TV after the tragedy in Arizona, let me explain. Crazy Clarence is an elected sheriff in the county where Jared Lee Loughner committed his atrocity last weekend.  Without any facts to back up his position, Crazy Clarence immediately began blaming gun laws and conservative commentary as the cause of the massacre.  Even after it was disclosed that Loughner was more of a liberal than a conservative and registered as an independent, Crazy Clarence continued his diatribe against the racist conservatives that drove another crazy man to murder.  Is this guy toning down the rhetoric like he is asking others to do?  I don't believe so.

Okay if I must pick, I do think that Loughner is the craziest.  Sheriff Clarence comes in second.

Look Ahead, not Back

After the dismantling of the Chiefs put on by a superior team, the Baltimore Ravens, the best thing to do is to look to the future and not the past.  The Chiefs made improvements and could improve more during the off season.  They need to.  The 2011 schedule will not be the cake walk they had in 2010.  Here is an early look at how this team would fare next year, minus any improvement:

Home opponents: San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Forget about a 7-1 record at home next year.  This schedule looks more like 4 wins at most.


Road opponents: San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts.

And if the home schedule wasn't difficult enough, the road schedule gets tougher.  The 2011 version of the KC Chiefs may not win a road game!  After going 4-12 in 2009, and improving to 10-6 in 2010, how will the fair weather KC fans react to a 5-11 (or worse) season?  Can you say black out?

That is the problem with a power puff schedule - they don't come by often.  This team will need significant,  order of magnitude improvement during the off season, to finish 8-8 next year.  Their best chance at winning as many as they lose in 2011 would be a player's strike.

Arizona Tragedy

The vast majority of Americans see the tragedy in Arizona for what it is - the actions of a deranged, insane individual.  The mainstream media sees it differently.  They see it as an opportunity to attack conservatives.  Over the next day or so, the media coverage will go only one of two ways:

• Jared Loughner will be found to be a right-wing nut,in which case the blame for his actions will be pinned to Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and conservatives in general.  This is the mainstream media's preferred outcome.
• Jared Loughner will be found to be a left-wing nut, in which case the blame for his actions will be pinned to George Bush's policies that led to Loughner's desire to lash out.

Just watch.

Facebook Personalities

Facebook has been forefront in the news lately, announcing they now have over 50 millions users.  They have also been valued at over 50 billion dollars in preparation for an IPO.  The recent attention along with the movie, The Social Network, has combined to make facebook a big news story in late 2010, early 2011.

I love facebook.  I am one of the old dudes who has ruined facebook for the young kids.  You may know what I am referring to.  Have you ever been accepted as a friend on facebook, and then notice the accepter immediately and completely reworks their public profile?  If you put yourself in their shoes you can recreate the thought process.  They get the friend request from you, decide it is better to accept it than reject so as not to offend you.  Then sanitize their profile for your benefit.  It really makes me wonder what was there before ... Allison.

I firmly believe that half of the 50 million facebook users fall into one of two categories.  There was once a third major category of user I call the status detailer.  You know the type.  Your wall would be littered with their status updates every day, all day.  Something like:

Frank is getting hungry.  What should I eat?
Frank is fixing a sandwich
Frank is enjoying a sandwich.
Frank is digesting his sandwich.
Frank is ...
You know the type.  Most of the status detailers have moved on to Twitter since it meets their needs far better than facebook.  The next major personality type of facebook user is the hypochondriac.  Facebook, to them is an ear for all their physical issues.  If you have a hypochondriac friend on facebook, you always know how their feeling, when their next doctor's appointment is, how they slept last night, what medications they take and where their pain is located today.  It gets old.  Most hypochondriac facebook users don't know how they are viewed by others.  They just know that expressing their health issues on facebook scratches the hypochondria itch. 

The last type of facebook personality is the chronically anti-social.  That's me.  I don't call people on the phone, becasue I really don't want to talk to them.  If I get called, I respond to their questions but never wander off subject.  My goal is to address the reason they called, and then hang up.  But I love facebook.  You see, on facebook I can stay in touch with friends and relatives without actually talking to them.  Facebook is a dream come true for the caring chronically anti-social person like me.  I love facebook.

First Playoff in KC since 2004

On Sunday, the KC Chiefs return to post season action for the first time in 4 years, and the first playoff game played in Arrowhead in 7 years.  If they lose, they will set a NFL record for the most consecutive playoff losses at 7 straight.  The last time the KC Chiefs won a playoff game was way back in 1994 when they beat the Houston Oilers 28-20.  I believe Warren Moon was the Oiler's quarterback.  Joe Montana was the KC quarterback and threw three touchdown passes in the second half to give the Chiefs a 28-20 come-from-behind win. 

As noted before, my ability to predict how the Chiefs will do has been very poor this year, although slightly better than the Memphis kid's.  I missed the first game of the season when I thought San Diego was a lock to beat KC.  Then I missed KC's ability to win the division on several occasions.  I thought KC would lose to the 49'ers and St. Louis.  KC beat both handily.  I felt sure they would beat Oakland in the last game of the season, and they were spanked unmercifully.  So now I will change my prediction tactic.  I will predict the opposite of what I think will happen so that I will look like a football genius the following Monday.

The Kansas City Chiefs will not set the record for consecutive playoff losses on Sunday.  Instead, they will surprise the Baltimore Ravens with a strong running game, rushing for over 200 yards and play stifling defense.  Matt "the $65m franchise man" Cassell will throw 2 touchdown passes to Dwayne Bowe, with no interceptions.  Final score will be KC 24, Baltimore 17.  KC will dominate the entire day.  Why not?  An underdog usually beats a stronger opponent every year during the playoffs.  This could be KC's year.

On Sunday evening, sports talking heads across the country will begin giving the Chiefs a fighting chance to beat the Steelers the following weekend in Pittsburgh.  After Pittsburgh, on to New England in the AFC Championship game where anything can happen. WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!

Tax Cut?

Instead of doing a Stupid Letter of the Week, I decided to opine on a troubling trend I have recently noticed in several general opinion venues.  I have responded to my local paper, however they have gone extremely liberal and have chosen to not publish my common sense, which is this:  How can so many people be fooled into thinking that Congress passed a law to give rich people a tax break?  Congress did not lower anyone's tax rates.  They did pass a law,which was signed by the president, to lock in the current tax rates for all taxpayers.  How that can be construed as a tax break for the rich is beyond logical thought.

And there is much more wrong with this line of thinking.  Foremost is the perception that America's rich do not pay their fair share. The term fair is somewhat ambiguous and this may lead to the misperception.  How about a few facts? 

• The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per­cent of total income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. 
• The bottom 50 percent earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes.

Is this fair?  I'll surprise you and say that it is.  The bottom 50 percent use a large percentage of their income to purchase the necessities of life, while the wealthiest spend a very small percentage of income for the basics.  Because of this, I am comfortable that our tax code is relatively fair. Those who feel it is not are usually looking at the large amount of discretionary income the wealthy have left to spend after taxes .  If not outright class warfare, it is definitely class envy.

If the tax rates are not fair, what would fair look like?  Would it be more or less fair to take $750,000 in taxes from a $1,000,000 income simply because the tax payer would still have $250,000 left?  If so, they why not take everything, but say $75,000, a good living wage?  Where would it stop?  If the incentive to innovate and be productive is limited to $75k per year, why would anyone try?  Under this plan, would there be a Microsoft or Apple?

Adding to the misperception the wealthy do not pay their fair share is the ballooning national deficit and debt.  Some feel this is a direct result of the tax breaks provided by Ronald Reagan and George Bush.  These too are fallacies.  The spiking deficit of the 1980's and under the current administration are due to massive spending increases, not falling tax revenues.  In fact, since the 2003 (Bush) tax cuts, federal revenues have grown by $745 billion, which is the largest real increase in history over such a short time period. Individual and corporate income tax receipts jumped by 30 percent in the first two years after those tax cuts.  The Reagan tax cuts brought similar results and led to the longest period of job growth the country has ever experienced.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to convince shallow thinkers that reducing tax rates can increase tax revenue.  But it does.  The concept is that by lowering the tax rate on production, work, investment, and risk-taking, a government will spur more of these activities which will often produce more tax revenue than was collected before the reduction. That logic is hard to follow, so the current batch of liberals in Congress choose to create a bogeyman (the rich) than change their high spending habits.  In November 2012, they will go also.

Vacation is a Drug

Today is Monday and I am going through withdrawal.  During the past year, I did something I had never done before.  I took two consecutive weeks off, not just once, but twice.  From this wonderful experience I have learned that vacation is just another addictive drug.  Both two week vacations are analagous to drug binges.  Being off for 2 weeks makes it twice as hard to and return to reality than after a one week vacation. 

The first week is used to de-stress and become accustomed to not going to work.  I felt a physical buzz the Friday evening before my 16 consecutive days of vacation.  During the first week off, I would still think about work, but enjoyed the fact that I did not go to the office.  The second week begins the real high.  Complete relaxation is a beautiful thing, probably similar to the rush a heroin addict feels.  Then, towards the end of the second week, thoughts of work begin to creep in.  Anxiety starts to build as the first day back to work approaches.  The drug addict probably feels the same when they burn though their stash.  They know that soon they can no longer get high and will become physically ill.  I began to feel that way around last Saturday.  On Sunday I was dreading my return to reality.

Today I have the physical illness.  I don't want to be here.  My to do list is growing to an unmanageable level.  All the pent up demands of the job were released on me this morning.  Everyone wants everything done today.  I need a vacation already.  Since the last holiday was New Year's, I now have vacation time in the bank.  But I need to make that time last, so I will hoard my stash for a later date.

Caption?

A picture is worth so many words.  This picture snapped during the holidays says so much.  There are so many ways to go with a caption, so give it a shot.  Remember, Kelsey doesn't read my blog so feel free to be as cruel as you want.

Terri's Christmas Present

Terri Christmas present was completed on the Thursday after Christmas.  The gift included new granite countertops, under-cabinet lighting, and new back splash.  As a final gift, her incredibly caring and thoughtful husband spent his Thursday cleaning up the entire upstairs from the mess left by the workman while she had lunch with her friends.  If I am not careful, I could be mistaken for "that guy".  Pictures of the work are below.

Resolutions for 2011

Today's post will look back on my 2010 resolutions, and forward to those for 2011. 

As I noted last year, most of us find at least one thing to improve about ourselves in the coming year. I think the intent of a New Year's Resolution is to clean up the big problems in your life. Theoretically, the older you get, the fewer big problems there are to clean up. I know this is true with me.

I could resolve to lose weight, but why?  I did lose 15 pounds in 2010 for a brief instant, but put most right back on.  What a waste (or waist) of time.  I tried very hard to be a swell guy all year, but just how swell can one guy be?  I guess I could be more giving, serve more people, hug a tree, work for world peace, be a better husband/father/grandfather, blah, blah, blah. Again, I am having a difficult time coming up with a single improvement opportunity for 2011 so I will continue to focus on little things that I can do better.

Here is my assessment of the 2010 resolutions, and my new list for 2011.

2010

• Accept more back rubs from my wonderful wife - Sadly, I didn't do well with this resolution.  It seems that I need a willing partner to succeed, and -T wasn't that willing to provide more back rubs.  In 2011, I resolve to only set goals that I can attain on my own.
• Notice how clean the house is more often, and complement Terri on her excellent work.  A-.  I did notice.  I could still improve on the complements.
• Renew my effort to visit every BBQ joint within 20 miles. - A+.  I am unaware of any new BBQ joints within 20 miles that I have not visited.  I even hit one near St. Louis twice.
• Read more books, listen to more music and watch more TV.  A+.  It's what I do and I am good at it. 

So what could be left to do in 2011?

• Stop buying Apple products.  Two iPods and an iPad should be enough for anyone.
• Stop pretending to be a Wildcat fan, UK or KSU.   The Jayhawks are now 12-0 on the season with a 66 game home court win streak, and continued their streak of 154 consecutive sold out games.   Within the next 3-5 years, they will also be the winningest college basketball program in history.  When this is your team, it leaves little time to follow second tier programs.

I already feel the improvement. 2011 is going to be a good year.