Those who read my posts know I am pretty easy going when it comes to politics. I don’t care if you’re a right wing reactionary or a left wing marxist. I don’t care if you’re brilliant or idiotic. As long as you are reasonably tolerant of other views then I don’t really care what you say, that’s part of a free society. But I am amazed at the abilities of Glenn Beck and Ed Shultz. I don’t really care for either and I am not a regular viewer of either program....

Now that we’ve all (hopefully) sent our returns in to the government the question in the back of our minds is how long to save those tax records. Of course there is nothing wrong with saving documents for as long as you want, but I thought I’d offer a little primer. The main reason you would intend to save records is, of course, on the very slight chance that the government might come and ask us some questions, raising that dreaded word.. audit. On the state level the rules vary from...

Embattled and relatively corrupt (in Nevada corrupt can be a relative term) Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) has announced that he will resign his seat effective May 3rd. Governor Brian Sandoval (R) is expected to name Congressman Dean Heller to the seat which will allow Heller to run as an incumbent in the 2012 election. Heller is already running for the seat against Congresswoman Shelly Berkley (D). This will thus bring about a special election in Heller’s 2nd district but it is likely the...

Now clearly this man is a stupid idiot, and he does deserve some punishment, but I am not so sure about jail. The basic story is that this 21 year old performed a song for a bunch of first graders. It was your typical first grader happy happy kind of song and by all accounts was well received. But then he took the video of that performance, replaced the audio with a sexually explicit song and posted it to Youtube as a joke. Parents were understandably not pleased, and the young man was charged with...

I don’t normally post sports related stuff but thought this was worth reporting. For those who may have missed the story this all stems from an incident at a Dodgers/Giants game in Los Angeles. A Giants fan was beaten into a coma by a couple of thugs who came to the game. Needless to say 99.99% of the LA fans are horrified over what happened and they are holding fundraisers not only here in Northern California but also in the LA region. Tonight was the first rematch between the two teams, this...

Not much to say other than post the link and let you all sound off.

New polls suggest that the Canadian Conservative party could be on the verge of winning an absolute majority in the upcoming May 2nd elections. If this happens it would be ironic since the Tories had a minority government that was defeated in a no confidence vote by the other parties. On the other hand given the problems facing most Western economies these days I’m not sure I’d want to be in charge.

I know it’s been a while since I posted regularly and I hope that once I get past tax season that I’ll have more time to write (assuming of course anyone wants to read my ramblings, both right wing and left wing depending on who you ask). But I had to take some time to mark the 50th anniversary we celebrate this week, the conquest of space by human beings. On 12 April 1961 (11 April in many parts of the Western Hemisphere) Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to orbit the Earth....

News just breaking that a budget deal has been reached to avoid a shutdown, according to early reports the deal is for the remainder of the fiscal year. It looks like we will have another short term continuing resolution to fund things until next week at which point they will vote on the final package for the 2010-11 budget year (which theoretically began last October).

The budget talks at the White House just finished and there was a very (emphasize VERY) short statment by Senate Leader Reid and Speaker Boehner. President Obama also expressed hope for a settlement. Both were cautious, making it clear they are still in talks and that issues remain. However the fact the two were appearing together seems like a good sign. Talks will continue through the night, my guess is something will be worked out but after that the real problems come up for discussion. I can’t...

The first official candidate for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination filed his papers last week. And he’s openly gay. It is believed he is the first openly gay candidate for a major party nomination. He’s a longshot (not because of his orientation but because he’s a relative unknown) but it is interesting that the first openly gay candidate filed with the GOP.

I’ll let the Salon article speak for itself, but I’d suggest those who see the South as the center of racism and the North as enlightened take a few breaths before reading.

There is a brewing controversy involving Food Network personality Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa. According to multiple media reports she has turned down a request from a sick, possibly dying six year old boy to cook with her. In fact she turned the request down twice. In her defense there are reports from Make A Wish that she does fill wishes and she certainly does have a busy schedule. I partly post this story because *IF* it is true that she has been this callous with an ill...

If you haven’t been following the road to the Final Four this year has been one of the most unusual in recent memory. Not only is there no #1 seed in the final four there is also no #2 seed either and that has never happened before. Or to put it another way, on ESPN they have 5.9 million people post their bracket picks. As of now, there are just 844 who have it right… So already 99.9% of those brackets are out.

Sad yet hopeful. Stunningly powerful. And thankfully, a bit of the wish has been granted.

The Canadian Parliament has approved a motion of no confidence in the government by a vote of 156-145. Under the Canadian system this means that the Government of Stephen Harper has fallen and an election campaign will go forward. Canada has been operating under a minority government for the last 5 years, so it was not entirely stunning that a united opposition of Liberalds, New Democrats and Bloq Quebecois would result in a defeat. However this is only the 6th such vote in the last 144 years and...

Almost as soon as word broke that Elizabeth Taylor had died at the age of 79 came reports that the hate mongers (I will not use the word Christian in relation to them) wanted to protest the funeral. I guess they didn’t bother to research Jewish law, which requires a funeral right after death. The services have already been held. Score one for Darwin.

The media has been having a field day reporting on the incident at Reagan National Airport where an air traffic controller on overnight duty seems to have fallen asleep, although he says the mike stuck. The report led Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to order 2 controllers at all times at Reagan and has caused many panic stricken newscasts. But was it really that big of a deal ? Now as always the disclaimer that I am not an expert in the sense of being a pilot, but aviation is a topic interest...

One of the more stunning statistics out of the census. Certainly we knew Detroit had been on a long term decline but I’m not sure it was expected that they would have such a huge drop. The state of Michigan also saw a drop in population and it appears to be the only state to have actually lost people.

Note: This post got somewhat mangled for some reason but has been updated and corrected. One of the major events of US military policy in the last part of the 20th century was the passage of the War Powers Act of 1973. In brief the act requires that if a President is going to commit US forces that he must obtain the consent of Congress. This would seem to have been an unnecessary action since the Constitution clearly grants the power to wage war to the President, but that same document grants the...

One of the side aspects to the crisis in Japan has been the very orderly reaction of the public to the crisis, a reaction which (had it occurred somewhere else) we might have even termed ‘Japanese’ in nature. Japan has long been a society of conformity and the people have maintained a faith in the truth and honesty of the government that hasn’t been seen in the US for decades (if not longer). But it may be that there are cracks emerging in that wall of trust. When the government...

NHK, the main Japanese news network can be viewed live on the net. Main Site Backup Site

A few days back I posted about the tragic loss suffered by a Michigan high school when their star basketball player died just after carrying the team to an undefeated season. Well today we have a little joy to report as the team won the championship, with their newest brother at their side. Mitchell Leonard is the younger brother of Wes Leonard, the fallen teammate and although he is only in eight grade and not on the team, he has become the adopted brother of everyone. In a week marked by tragic...

ESPN is just now reporting that the NFL will announce a lockout tonight, possibly meaning that there will be no football for the 11-12 season. I’m not big fan nor do I really dislike football, but I have to say this prospect of billionaires and millionaires yelling at each other like little kids does not make me care for the lockout (other than for the many players who don’t make millions and will really be hurt. Ditto to the regular employees).

This post is a rework of one I made about two or three years ago. Given the events in the Middle East and word that the revolt in Libya may be fading, I thought it worth reposting. I am quite sure that the title to this posting caused some of you to gasp or express outrage over the idea that something as inherently evil as American (and/or Bush or Obama etc) Foreign Policy could be too moral but I would ask you to hear me out. My original post was prompted by the fact that I was watching a series...