Here’s the picture, a stay at home mom offers to help out her neighbors by keeping an eye on their kids for the 15-40 minutes between when the parents head to work and the school bus arrives. The kids are all friends, the mom is just trying to be a good neighbor. Well according to the state of Michigan she’s a lawbreaker, illegally operating a day care. The fact that she seems to do it for free and only for a little while in the morning doesn’t seem to matter. Nor does the fact...

UPDATE: Reports are dozens have  died, with chances of it exceeding 100. A powerful earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale has struck American Samoa and unconfirmed reports say a tsunami has hit the capital city. The quake was centered a deep ocean trench but caused considerable shaking on a number of islands. Waves of 10 to 15 feet high were reported by Eni Faleomavaega, the delegate who represents the area in Congress

By a margin of 15-8, the Senate Finance committee has voted to reject an amendment which would provide for a public option in the health care reform package. Republicans voted 10- to reject the amendment while Democrats voted 8-5 in favor of it.

One of the nice things about the recent success in uncovering the terror cell that was planning to carry out new attacks is that this is something we can all celebrate without getting partisan about it. To be sure there will be some hard liners on the right who will claim it is a fraud or some hard liners on the left who will claim this is proof that Obama is good but Bush was bad at finding terror cells (the same was true, in reverse, during the Bush years). But for the overwhelming majority of...

Update: Reports now indicate that more than 500,000 people are homeless. Few people have insurance to pay for rebuilding. The death toll now is at 140 but is expected to climb. A story that has not been getting a lot of play in the US media is that of Typhoon, now Tropical Storm Ondoy. The storm has already devastated Manila in the Philippines and is heading for mainland China. The storm has dumped more rain in the Philippines than Katrina dumped on New Orleans and is expected to dump large amounts...

From time to time in my work I come across a new level of bizarre behavior on the part of lenders. I have previously written about how it never made sense to me that banks with mortgages or credit card companies would not work with their customers to try and work something out. It always seemed to be more logical for the bank/credit card company to get a deal which would give them some money rather than none. But for many years that wasn’t even a real option for my clients. I remember bluntly...

Just a little pick me up for your afternoon

I can’t really think of any way I could improve on the original story so I’ll just leave you with the link to read it. But this kind of classy behavior makes you feel a little better about your day. Link

Now that the Massachusetts legislature has passed the revisions in the law it is looking very likely that the new Senator will be former DNC official Paul Kirk. Governor Patrick still has to do some paperwork to allow him to make the appointment now but that is a mere formality. Update: Kirk has been appointed.

ACORN has sued the activists who caught various ACORN workers seemingly supporting the importation of underage sex slaves. While I long ago gave up on the idea that the people running this group were smart, this is mind  bogglingly stupid. If, as in this case, you sue based on reputation then you are basically opening up all of your records to review by the attorneys for the other side. Given all the problems they’ve had I’m not sure they really want this much scrutiny. Another sign...

George Carlin was well known for his routine about the seven words you could not say on television. His point was to push the envelope on censorship. These days with pay television the words are no longer that restricted, indeed we often see some of them on regular programming (though not in this post, you can surf over to the link if u want to read them). I think it is time for us to introduce certain terms that simply do not belong in political debate. I realize that the issues are often very intense...

The House has followed the example of the Senate in denying funding to ACORN because of the recent scandal involving then seeming to aid people in tax fraud and importing sex slaves. The Senate vote was 83-7 while the House vote was 345-75. In both cases the 82 members who voted to keep funding ACORN were from the liberal wing of the Democratic party. In both cases the vote will not take effect until the bills are signed by the President (I am presuming he will sign given the veto proof majorities...

Obviously at this point with the need to reconcile the various proposals we do not know what the final form will be for the Baucus proposal (America’s Healthy Future Act). But from the details contained in his announcement and outlined in this press release my preliminary reaction is positive. It looks to be a balanced approach which works to solve the current problems without creating a massive new program. For those who missed the statement, the basic plan contains the following details (per...

A lawsuit has been filed in New Jersey after three teenagers refused to stand during the playing of God Bless America at a minor league baseball park. There is some debate as to whether the teens refused to stand deliberately as some protest against the US or if they simply didn’t think about it one way or the other. There is also some dispute as to the exact details of the confrontation with the stadium owner, but it is clear that the boys were thrown out of the park. They have now sued for...

Not exactly surprising news given his grim diagnosis, but actor Patrick Swayze has died after a two year long battle with cancer at the age  of 57. Deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

His name may not have been as well known as some others but Borlaug, who died this past Saturday at the age of 95, was quite probably one of the most important figures of the 20th century. He was called the father of the Green Revolution, a sweeping transformation of agriculture that occurred during the middle part of the century. Perhaps his most famous achievement was the development of dwarf wheat, a special strain which could survive in environments that were too harsh for other strains. This...

I watched the speech earlier but for me it came right around dinnertime so I decided to eat and take some time to gather a few thoughts before posting. As always I thought his speech was quite good on style, there is no doubting that the man can give a superb speech. His skills are such that even if you disagree with what he is saying you can’t help but to be charmed by him anyway. I also felt that Congressman Wilson of South Carolina was disgusting in his behavior. I didn’t like it when...

Now I can understand that perhaps Mr. Friedman doesn’t like what he sees as corporate influence over our government, I think most of us don’t like it. While I would strongly disagree with him, I could even understand if he wanted to ban anyone more conservative that Ted Kennedy from being allowed to participate in politics. But looking to CHINA as an example of good government ?? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html?_r=2 Reasonably Enlightened ???? Perhaps he missed...

Shortly after President Obama took office I wrote that if he were wise he would look to Eisenhower rather than Nixon when it came to dealing with overseas wars. Given the discussions in the news lately I thought it was worth reposting my thoughts for your consideration In my post, I pointed out that both Ike and Nixon faced wars when they came into office and that along with Obama they were the only ones to do so with a change in party control of the White House. At the time I suggested that Obama...

I expect many are familiar with the now legendary Pachelbel Rant but I think this video is even more brilliant

I am the first to admit that I am the king of dumb mistakes. Whether it’s in my personal life or my professional one, I am quite capable (indeed sometimes it seems eager) to make dumb blunders. Normally they are pretty minor but once in a while I do make a whopper of a blunder. I accept this as simply part of being a human being But I have some friends who work in the entertainment industry and I have sometimes asked them how it is possible for the truly awful movie or television show to make...

One thing that has been mentioned in the debate over health care reform is the idea that Medicare has a much lower overhead than private insurance companies so to switch over to a government system would save money. But one of the problems is that this assumes the current overhead would remain the same if millions more joined the system. As has been pointed out by some of the opponents to a government system, part of the reason that overhead with Medicare is low is because the costs of treatment...

Recently our local news covered the story of a police standoff in the city of Manteca, California. It was a pretty standard story, a couple of would be bank robbers were running from the police and ran inside a duplex, displacing the residents and leading to an hours long standoff. Happily that part of the story ended without anyone being hurt. But the story had a followup, one that probably applies to every standoff around the country. In order to get the bad guys out without the use of lethal force...

I must admit that when it comes to the man and his work, my views are somewhat mixed. I find some of Jerry’s stuff is absolutely brilliant but much of his slapstick humor goes a bit silly for me. I’ve also heard that when it comes to Jerry Lewis the man he’s not exactly the nicest human being and can often be quite a jerk. But when it comes to Labor Day weekend I can say nothing but God Bless This Man. For longer than I have been alive this man has been going out every Labor Day...

In a low turnout election last night to fill the seat left vacant by former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (and current Obama administration official) California Lt. Governor John Garamendi was the top finisher with 26% of the vote. Given the heavy Democratic tilt of the district (about 2-1) it is likely he will win the November runoff. This would leave a vacancy in the office of Lt. Governor and bring about some interesting, if probably meaningless, political gamesmanship. Under California law Governor Arnold...