Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Month: November 2010 (Page 2 of 2)

Jailhouse Movies Are Torture?

November 15, 2010 / / 0 Comments

This poor Brevard County inmate thinks so.

“Like the old Chinese water torture, the inescapable sounds of these movies over and over works on nerves and psyche.”

I’ve watched Smoky and the Bandit and Swingers too many times to count, so I can say from experience that kicking back on the couch memorizing dialog isn’t exactly the toughest thing someone can force you into. Maybe this guy should become more familiar with the business end of a shovel to help ease his nerves and psyche. You know…when the body suffers the spirit flowers.

Of course, this has nothing to do with torture or legitimate complaints. It’s really just an attempt by this guy to further extend his stay at Hotel Taxpayer.

Poulin was arrested by Palm Bay police in January 2007 for allegedly driving and crashing his car while intoxicated, an accident that killed his female passenger.

There have been 14 motions for continuances in his case and six federal lawsuits against the jail, all of which have been dismissed

Great. Just great.

 

My Next Great Idea – The USPS Stimulus Package

November 12, 2010 / / 0 Comments

After reading this article on the USPS losing $8.5 B (yes, that’s $500 million AFTER THE DECIMAL PLACE!). With all the hyperbole over evil corporations, at least their management has to answer to shareholders…at least they have to answer to someone. I was talking about it with a couple of people on Twitter:

[blackbirdpie id=”3124711739363328″]

[blackbirdpie id=”3116082235711488″]

 

Obviously, they aren’t huge fans. Come on…what’s a few billion amongst friends? But then I saw these articles about the Swedes storing emails and texts and our own government  getting ready to grace us with an Internet Czar and a light bulb went off…

USPS Stimulus package!

Just set up (yet another) federal agency to track and log every single piece of electronic communication. This will have the (un)intended consequence of forcing…err…encouraging people to go back to sending coded messages through the USPS and hoping they are delivered within a few days. Think of how many USPS jobs this could save or create!

Pillar Of A 3rd Party Platform?

November 10, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Just go back to the tried and true playbook and start calling federal employees “Fat Cats”.

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
…
Since 2000, federal pay and benefits have increased 3% annually above inflation compared with 0.8% for private workers, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis

Maybe the Wall Street Fat Cats, Healthcare Fat Cats, Big Oil and Energy Fat Cats, Big Media Fat Cats, Legal Fat Cats, Agriculture Fat Cats, Literary Fat Cats, Landscaping Fat Cats, DotCom Fat Cats and all the other Fat Cats (did you ever notice the Fat Cats usually have some occupation other than the one of the person calling them “Fat Cats”?) can band together to fight this scurge. We just don’t have room for any new groups of Fat Cats.

Of course, someone *cough*Republicans*cough* will surely try to co-opt any such message as their own.

Oh, and here are the Deficit Commission recommendations released today. I’ll believe it when I see it.

IKEA Homemade is Best Cookbook

November 8, 2010 / / 1 Comment

What does IKEA mean to you? To me, it means flat packaging, easy to follow assembly instructions with pictures instead of words, and stuff that is so cool and affordable that I usually end up buying something I hadn’t planned on.

Check out IKEA’s “Homemade is Best” baking book.

  • Flat? check
  • Easy instructions with no words, with beautiful photos by Carl Kleiner? Check
  • So cool and (presumably) affordable that I’ll definitely be buying one on my next trip to IKEA, even though I hadn’t planned on buying a cookbook for the rest of my life? Check

The Facts and Science of QEII

November 5, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The newly announced monetization of debt…ERRRRR…devaluation of the currency…ERRRRR…quantitative easing announced by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday has many Americans confused and baffled. What does this really mean for us? After all “facts and science and argument does [sic] not seem to be winning the day” with the collection of hilljacks that is the American people.

Maybe what we really need is an easy to understand analogy to explain in terms that we can relate to.

Let’s say the money supply is a big pile of rich, high-grade manure we are using to to fertilize our gardens. Now, imagine that a big stud horse (the Fed) comes along and, with increasing frequency and volume, adds to our supply of manure. I guess the theory is that we’ll respond by just planting more crops. But how long would it take for us to stop calling this big stinking pile of crap “fertilizer” and start calling it “a big stinking pile of crap”?

Over time, the manure’s value to us would be greatly diminished, and we’ll be lucky if we can load a bunch of it up in wheel barrow and trade it for a loaf of bread from our neighbor. Meanwhile, no one knows who owns the damned horse that keeps adding crap to the pile.

Oversimplified? Maybe so. But it’s pushing the limit of what our government educated brains can handle. Best to leave it to the horse to decide what is best.

Mexican Standoff In Congress?

November 3, 2010 / / 0 Comments

There’s a possibility we could be looking at two years scripted by Quentin Tarantino. Maybe the standard finger pointing that we’re used to seeing is about to be replaced by something far more complicated.

Democrats have lost a lot of their Blue Dog numbers. I’ve actually read some people spinning this as the people in their districts were frustrated that they weren’t taking a “progressive enough” stance. If you really believe that, go pop some popcorn and enjoy what’s about to happen amongst Democrats as their leadership tries to pull them even further to the left. That would be disastrous for the Left and good for the country, so I’m not going to discourage it at all.

And, unless they get co-opted by the “Trent-Lott-Carl-Rove” Republicans, we’re probably going to see some infighting on that side of the aisle too. Again, probably bad for Republicans, but good for the country. Marco Rubio’s speech was dead on–last night wasn’t an embrace of the Republican Party, just a second chance.

If things don’t change, we could *gulp* be looking at a serious third party next time around. And if the establishment Democrats and Republicans aren’t careful, they may actually be that third party–on the outside looking in.

I’m generally happiest with a federal government that’s not doing much of anything. The less they try to create jobs (that’s a function of government?), bail people out, spend our money on our behalf, impose morality (love the irony), prop up favored industries, etc. the better off we all are. This usually happens when we are lucky enough to have opposing parties in the executive and legislative branches. Maybe now we’ll have so much debate of ideas going on that only the really good ones that have been properly vetted can float to the top.

“Yolanda, it’s cool baby. It’s cool! We’re still just talkin’. Come on point the gun at me. Point the gun at me.”

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