Today I stopped at the grocery store to get some food for dinner. When I got out to car I realized they had undercharged me by $ 1.50 so I went back in and told them and paid the extra. I mentioned this to a friend (whom I consider quite honest) and he said that he never bothers for less than $ 5. Which prompted me to offer this weekend post for your consideration When dealing with shopping, how much do you have to be undercharged before you go in and say something ? Is it different amount when they...

When Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) ran for office in 2006 he wore his sons combat boots to signal his support for his son, who was fighting in Iraq. Those boots are now displayed in his DC office. Well he just got some more boots. These boots bear the signatures of some of the 14,000 service members who were discharged under DADT. A very fitting symbol for the Senator to consider. How about supporting ALL of the troops ?

Neither he nor the people he quotes are anything but solidly conservative, yet he thinks that the right made a huge mistake. I think he’s right.

The Crystal Ball, ever the informative resource, has provided us with an analysis of how Gallup and their final pre election poll correlate to election outcomes. The basic message seems to be that if the GOP has even a modest lead in the final poll that Speaker Pelosi will be moving into new digs come January. With a result of about +4R the new numbers would be 223-213 (right now the number seems to be around 5). If the number goes as high as the 10 point edge in a recent poll we’d see a GOP...

Sometimes you run across a story that is just too amazing to believe. Brian Wood, a video game designer, and his wife were driving to visit family members when the driver of an oncoming vehicle tried to take off her sweater while her passenger took the wheel. As Wood and his wife watched the other vehicle swerved into their path. With only seconds to react, Wood slammed on his brakes and swerved to the right, deliberately putting himself in the direct path of the oncoming car. He was killed instantly,...

The title pretty much says it all. In the contest for the most screwed up GOP in the country, New York pretty much is winning the race. They could have nominated a relatively respected former Congressman in Rick Lazio. Instead they nominated Carl Paladino, best known to voters outside New York for sending emails containing,among other things, what can most tactfully be described as containing a real detailed version of the ‘birds and the bees’ To be fair, either Lazio or Paladino would...

Admittedly this projection is about seven weeks early but with the Tea Party celebrating victories in Alaska, Delaware and possibly New Hampshire, any chance the GOP had of taking over the US Senate is dead. Delaware, which was a 99% GOP win with Castle is now a 75% D lock. Alaska is probably going to work out for the GOP thanks largely to the weakness of the D candidate but it’s still going to be closer than it should be. New Hampshire is up in the air, but the Tea Party candidate is far...

In reviewing the recent primary activity by the Tea Party and the more conservative elements of the GOP I have been amazed at their willingness to give up seats for the sake of purity. Perhaps it is only because I am reading the books at the same time but I cannot help but be reminded of comments by Henry Kissinger with regard to the arms treaties signed with the Soviet Union during the 1970s. At that time many on the right were outraged that the Nixon and Ford administrations were willing to not...

A federal judge has ruled that the military policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is unconstitutional because it violates the 1st amendment rights of servicemembers. Judge Virginia Phillps (a Clinton appointee to federal bench but a GOP appointee to state bench) ruled that the law is unconstitutional on its face and issued an injunction. I presume this will be appealed, especially since past rulings have accepted limits on the rights of the military when it was necessary for national security. Personally...

Chicago Major Richard Daley is not running for re-election marking an end to another era of Chicago politics. Between them, Daley and his father (the original Mayor Daley) have governed the city for about 43 of the last 55 years. There is no question that the Democrats will hold the seat, only who will be picked by Daley to take over. There also remains speculation that since WH Chief of Staff Emmanuel has expressed interest in running for Mayor that Daley may have been offered some nice Cabinet...

The comedian has died from injuries in a car accident I was not always a fan of his humor, but he did a lot of quiet volunteer work for cancer survivors and I greatly admire that. RIP

Looks like Chris is not very happy with the teleprompter Obama

I suspect for most readers this will come down to an ‘only in California’ comment. The long and short of it is the fire marshal requiring the removal of the latch which allows the nozzle to fill up without you holding it. The report cited *13* cases in which this brand of of nozzle had stuck and spilled gas on the ground. Now I am certainly not one who wants dangerous products to be used and obviously you have to be very cautious when it comes to gasoline. But thirteen cases ? There are...

Personally I am still uncertain as to how things will play out this fall but Larry Sabato (a fairly well respected and neutral analyst) is calling the House a done deal and the Senate as in play. I do think this will be a bad year for the Democrats, off year elections almost always are for the party in the White House. I also think that for each party the worst outcome would be narrow control. And of course we must factor in the Tea Party and its ability to screw everything up for the GOP.

UPDATE: The gunman has been killed by police and the hostages are safe ************************************************* Sadly not a show on the network but a real world crisis. The suspect is James Jay Lee, a man with a history of protesting the network for not airing the proper kind of programming on the environment. Reports are he has hostages, a gun and some bombs (bomb equipment on site from the police too). He has a page on Myspace(for now). He also published a manifesto (on a site that appears...

I’ve been expecting it ever since Health Care Reform passed but i just got word that my health insurance premiums are going up 20% this year. First big increase (other than for age bracket) changes in some time. I will absorb the hike, probably by dropping dental coverage (which is to me of debatable value) and being single I am not in too bad of a position. I can only imagine what a family of four might experience. Of course part of my issue is being self employed I don’t have employer...

I often disagree with the politics over on Red State but found this story very interesting as it is pretty much first (or second) person on how to survive Katrina. To be fair not everyone had a relative to help and not everyone could get to a car, but it does go to show that there were options. This does not reduce the seriousness of the suffering or the need to learn from mistakes, but it is always useful to see all the sides of a story.

Get Equal is a group that has a Facebook page and supports Same Sex Marriage Rights. They had an interesting post today PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE -Dick Cheney -Ted Olson -Laura Bush and Cindy McCain -Glenn Beck -Ken Mehlman PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE -President Obama

After you’ve cleared your mind of various what the comments, you can read this article about a school in Mississippi that has decided to segregate class elections, only allowing whites to run for some offices and only allowing blacks to run for others. I suppose the theory was this insures that there will be class officers of both races but how dumb can you get.

One of our loyal readers brought this article to my attention and it is well worth reading and considering. The article compares the US and German economies and the fact that while our economy is still struggling the German economy is moving along and a steady clip. Since the growth (or lack thereof) is only reflected by a short period of time the author does not suggest that it proves our model wrong or the German model right, but it is interesting to ponder. The point he does make however that...