Philly

I figured that I owed you all another post. I'm not the most prolific of writers, but I can do better than once a month.

Over the holidays, I went to Philadelphia for a couple days. My sister lives up about an hour north of the city, and we stopped at her place for a few days. The first day we were there, we decided to drive into Philly. "We" includes my sister, Vickie, her husband, Michael, his son (her step-son), Noah, and me and my wife, Suzanne. Michael and Vickie decided that we'd take Vickie's car, which was an old Toyota with 155,000 miles on it. So, by the time we were all finally up and ready to go, it was after noon. We were going to go have lunch at a place just off the UPenn campus, called Koch's Deli, which I had gone to a few times when I was in school.(http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/outoftown/pennsylvania/philadelphia/west/kochs/index.htm)
Koch's has the best Deli outside of NYC.

It's a little convoluted getting into the city from Vickie's place. First, we took roads to the highway, then we got off that onto the Penn. turnpike. Because of some minor construction, there was a huge traffic jam, and we had to fight our way through bumper to bumper cars going every which way for 45 min. Finally we got past that and everything seemed to be fine. We got off the turnpike and got onto highway 76, the Schuykill expressway. As we went up a hill, the car started making a rattling noise and the check engine light came on. Michael, who was driving, didn't feel to comfortable with this, because the car was leaking oil, and, when questioned, Vickie said that she handn't been checking the oil. At mile 334 (only 10 miles from Center City, Philly) we got off on the shoulder, to check the oil. On checking it, we found that it wasn't even registering on the dipstick.
We called triple-A to have a tow truck come bring us a quart of oil. They informed us that they can't bring oil and would have to tow us. They also told us that 5 of us wouldn't fit in the truck and they'd have to leave 3 of us on the side of the road waiting for a cab. They also told us they couldn't find a cab for at least 2 1/2 hours. The tow truck wouldn't be there for at least 45 minutes. All, in all, we were waiting on the side of the road for about 1/2 hour, when we saw a tow truck go by in the other direction, then 10 min later, it pulled up behind us. It was a Penn. Department of Transit (PennDOT) truck. They just roam the highways looking for stranded cars like us. He had oil, and told us about the gas station 4 miles up the highway. We drove there, and put 4 more quarts of oil in. We were VERY lucky we didn't sieze up the engine of the car while driving before. But now we were back in business. HURAH!
Then we drove on into west Philly and went through the Penn campus. I played tour guide. We got to Koch's, and I was pleasantly surprised that the neighborhood west of campus had gotten quite a bit nicer and safer. One thing I hadn't remembered, was that Koch's had no seating, except for a little table outside. We got our delicious food (with 1 pound of meat on each hoagie) and sat outside to eat. It was great, but we were freezing. It had been rather warm, but the temp had dropped by 10 or 15 degrees. So we packed up and went down to the Penn campus and walked around. We saw the restaurant, Cerality, which we had read about years ago.
http://www.cereality.com/main.php
Cereality is awesome. They just sell cereal (hot and cold). You get a container, and you pick out 2 scoops of multiple kinds of cereal, and 2 toppings. I had corn flakes and frosted flakes, with banannas, and blueberries. Kids can get all sorts of candy and chocolate type toppings too. You can have whatever milk you want from the milk bar. They even have a spoon that has a tube through it, to drink your milk when you are done with the cereal. A straw-spoon.

After hanging out at campus for a bit, we went down to South Street. It's a cool area, very much like Greenwich Village in NYC. Among other places, we went into one of my favorite stores down there, A Garland of Letters, a new age bookstore.
http://www.southstreet.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,50/Itemid,40/
We had a lot of fun just walking around.

Then, we headed back, and it only took 45 minutes to drive what took us about 2 hours before.

The next day, Suzanne and I decided to take the train in. When we got back, Vickie and Michael had wasted no time. They had sold the car and bought a Chevy Equinox.

Death Penalty

This is from a comment that I put on Theory of Thought's blog.

Yes, I have no problem with people who are being executed feeling some pain. However, I think we should go back to public, daylight executions, if we are going to keep doing them. If you are using execution as a deterrent, why hide it? You could have firing squads, or public hangings, or guillotines. Or maybe gladiatorial games, a la The Running Man. It's so hypocritical to be pro-death penalty, and then take such measures to hide the execution.

I've tended to be pro-death penalty, myself, because there are some people out there who really are so vile that they are never going to see the light of day again, and they have done some things so terrible that that should die for them. The only problem is determining who they are and getting it right.

You hear about a case where some 18 year old broke into a convienience store and got surprised by the owner and shot and killed him, and, then, 30 years later, he's being put to death. That's crazy. You shouldn't be killed just because you screwed up and that happened to cost someone else his life.
Now, what is someone is a serial murderer who has been kidnapping 12 year old boys and girls from a town and torturing and raping and killing them, for 15 years, having killed several hundred? I think most would agree that this person shouldn't be allowed to live.

Where's the middle ground?

The other big problem is that our legal system sometimes convicts innocent people, as is proven years later by new evidence. If you kill the innocents, are you any better than the criminals?

And then, there's the appeal after appeal, for years and years. Why am I paying tax dollars so that a serial murder can sit in prison and eat and live, dragging out his case to keep himself alive a few more years? But, then we are back to the not convicting innocents again.

I guess the whole legal system needs to refined to take less time, but not get the wrong people.

So, should we be against the death penalty because it can end up killing innocents? I don't know, but I do know that I'm for killing those who are guilty of the most heinous crimes.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Helen to write 6 wierd things about myself:

1) I can remember all sorts of things with ease, except people's names. I can remember what happened in what tech support call for a customer 2 years ago, or what technical command is necessary to be run, or what flags it takes. However, I have the hardest time remembering people's names.

2) I have memorized Edgar Allen Poe's, The Raven.

3) I have memorized Pi to 35 decimal places

4) As a US citizen, living in the US, I married a Canadian citizen

5) I have started to do my weight workout with a sledgehammer. Check out www.shovelglove.com for more information. It's actually more like going back to how Native Americans would work out with a weighted stick.

6) I am very flexible. I can sit on the ground, with legs spread, and lean forward and put my chin on the ground.

Healthcare

Hmmmm, there was a very interesting post from http://curmudgeonisms.blogspot.com/ that I liked:

"If you're going to knowingly do something detrimental to your health, maybe you should pay more for insurance. But why limit it to smokers and fatties? Shouldn't drinkers pay more too? Booze is bad for you, is it not? And druggies. Their insurance should be way higher. In fact, everyone should get drug tested on a regular basis, shouldn't they? Make sure they aren't on the verge of killing themselves.How about snowboarders or motorbike riders? Why should they be let off the hook? Chances are higher they'll hurt themselves than someone who doesn't participate in those sort of activities.And players on the local softball team - there's a better chance they'll get hurt than someone watching from the bleachers. Especially if they had a quick cheeseburger before the game, have a beer and a smoke break between half innings, then ride home on their motorbike. See where this is going? Where do we draw the line? "


I think he has a good point. With cities like NYC looking to ban transfat because it's bad for people, so that the healthcare costs go up for everyone else, we need to look at the big picture.

I think we should not be passing any victimless laws, like banning transfat. Educate people so they know what it does to them, and let them make the decision. Big brother doesn't need to watch over everything for you.

A Pledge

I really liked this pledge:
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives November 14th, 2006

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans, I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Signed,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

The Election

Well, fortunately, it's just two days now and all the waiting is over. I have been reading and posting on a forum, www.carypolitics.org. It's very interesting, because the site is run and mostly populated by extreme right wingers, and that is something that I am not. There's one guy on there who really seems to have lost it, but it's kinda fun to beat him up in arguments. I'm just a little worried that I'm going to get a package of white powder in the mail one of these days if I push him too far.
One of their biggest anti-Clinton issues is that they say he gave missle technology to the Chinese. When the latest news about the current administration having had put up a web site with information about how to build a nuclear bomb, and then taking it down because it had too detailed information on it, I posted that and asked them where their outrage was now.
They pointed out that it was Iraqi documents and tried to clain that this justified Bush's war of aggression because here was proof of WMDs. So, an aly and I had to fight that for a while, and finaly ended up pointing out that these documents were from before the first Gulf war when Iraq did have a WMD program, and proved absolutely nothing.
Now I can finaly get them back to the original question of where is their outrage at the Bush administration for posting detailed instructions that probably helped North Korea perfect their nuclear technology.

There's probably not much point to these debates, but I'd like to think that if I could get just one of these people to think a little more clearly, and a little more logically and see the lies and hypocrisy that we've been given for the last 6 years, I'll have made the world a better place.

Of course, I get my own gains too. Once you have a goal of trying to prove something to others, you do a lot more research, and find out things that you didn't know.
For instance, I ended up in the position of having to defend Kerry's mis-statement. I did research and did find that about 5% of the enlisted in the army had a college degree or greater. About 30% of the overall population has a college degree or greater. Almost 100% of the officers have a college degree or greater. In the army overall, but 19% have college degrees or greater.
Now, I have only the highest respect for the military, and am very glad they are working to defend the country. Also, there are many smart people in the military, and the officers are exceptionaly well educated. The enlisted aren't quite as well educated as the rest of the populace though.
However, what my opponents should have argued, is that most of the enlisted are 'college aged' people, who may have entered the military rather than going to college. And, after 4 years in the military, with the special training that they constantly recieve, maybe they are more educated than your average college graduate.
In any case, it's a moot point, because that's not what Kerry was trying to say, as anyone who listens to his speech would know. This is just another smoke screen to try to turn us away from the real issues.

I'n 2 days, we will see.

Smart Teacher

This is funny!

Idiotic beaurocracy (Associate Superintendent) causes problems and has no solutions, and the smart teacher finds a solution that works out best for everyone, and gets reprimanded for it.

http://www.wral.com/education/10087115/detail.html

My favorite line is:
"Yandle said if the school had been on an actual lockdown and students needed to use the restroom, she would have encouraged them to think about something other than the bathroom and find ways to occupy their minds."

Hurrah to the teacher. I think it's time for a new Associate Superintendent.

New book

I've just started reading "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris. I'm just in the first chapter, but so far this has been a fairly shocking book. It's a very though provoking and erudite dialog about religion in the world today. I highly recommend that everyone read this, just based on what I've read already.
I'm really looking forward to getting his latest book, "Letter to a Christian Nation," which has great reviews in the paper, and on Amazon.

Has anyone read much of Sam Harris?