Dick is Getting Lai'd?

Well, this situation is ripe for all sorts of double entendres

Finding a new swing state, the Bush campaign has decided to send Dick to a climatic event in Hawaii. As a traditional form of greeting, Dick will receive a lei upon arrival.

Ed. Note: Mitch had to do something sophmoric for this case since he missed out on all the blog jokes on Al-Qaqaa

Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

There is a lot of discussion going on within the Bear Flag League about the recent "threat tape" that ABC News got a hold of.

My take: so what?

If given the opportunity, these bozos would do a daily threat-of-the-day on your local news, right after sports, but before the weather:

...and so they break the Curse! That's sports for today!

Thank-you, Giff. And now we have with our daily terrorist threat. Over to you, Mohammed.

WE WILL KILL ALL AMERICANS AND MAKE THE STREETS RUN THICK WITH THE BLOOD OF YOU AND YOUR ZIONIST ALLIES BECAUSE WE HATE YOU AND WE LOVE DEATH MORE THAN YOU LOVE LIFE!!!! YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE AT OUR HANDS YOU INFIDEL SCUM!!

Thank-you, Mohammed. Dave, what's going on with all this rain lately?

Bob, after our commercial break, I'll show you the radar picture and what we can expect this weekend. Will it be more rain or can we expect sun? Stay tuned.

That's not to say that there isn't a real terrorist threat. But we already know that they hate us, and some islamofascist ranting vague threats to a TV camera doesn't tell anything we don't already know.

Gimli?

Ancient Dwarf Bones Found

"They better bury me when they're through!"

Handheld PDA Market Slowly Dying

Well, this isn't exactly news. The PDA (Personal Digital Assistants, like Palms) are slowly being rolled into cell phones, creating a new category of that device called "smart phones". The functionality these PDAs and Smartphones provide is called Personal Information Management (PIM):

Due to intense competition from converged mobile devices that perform basic personal information management (PIM) tasks, the worldwide market for handheld devices saw its third successive quarter of year-over-year decline in Q3, according to the latest research from Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

As with any market that is being cannibalized, consolidation has started and no-name brands are entering from the bottom:

Consolidation in the handheld device market continued with the exit of previous top vendors Sony and Toshiba while lower barriers to entry have enabled companies with established core competencies in electronics design and manufacturing to enter the market and quickly gain share, IDC pointed out, even though it comes at the expense of margins in the face of a flat or slightly shrinking market.

In the end this functionality will be carried by cellphones and this segment will become a niche market dominated by only a few low-cost players.

Taking Drink Orders Now for Election Night Party

I've decided to hold an election night party next week, which will hopefully turn into a victory celebration. So far I have RSVPs from bloggers XRLQ, Sneakeasy, and Rorschach. In addition I have about half a dozen non-bloggers showing up. The invite requires you to be a Bush supporter, although not a republican, as I have one Democrat for Bush coming. Like Zell, she feels "betrayed by her party".

We will, of course, be watching Fox for the evening's returns in my Fabulous New Back Yard^TM (bring a jacket). WIFI is available for anyone who wants to live blog the event or the returns.

Anyway, I have started to put together a drink list for the evening. If you have a request or suggestion to add to this list, let me know:

Green With Envy Apple Martini
If you think libs are upset now, just wait until a second Bush term. They’ll be green with envy with republicans staying in power another four years, and what better way to piss them off even further than toasting a Bush victory with a cool mix of Kettle One vodka and Apple Pucker.

Rumsfeld and Coke
Large amounts of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum with just a little bit of coke, for that extra caffeine jolt for watching the returns. A drink Rummy himself recommends after doing battle with the press.

Gin and Tax Cut Tonic
Tax cuts are the tonic to any recession, and this drink will pull you out any depression you may be feeling. Made with Tanqueray, the only gin served in the Director’s household.

Comrade Vodka Tonic
Workers of the World will rejoice if Comrade Kerry gets elected, so if returns aren’t looking good, you can join the proletariat and start drinking the heavy amounts of vodka you are going to need for the next four years. Made with Chopin potato vodka for an authentic taste.

You Don’t Know Jack
Dems know little and Kerry even less. So feel free to toast his ignorance with a Jack and coke, Jack on Ice, or Jack neat.

Patriot Sam Adams
What better beer to have during the election than one named after a Founding Father?

Undocumented Coronas
Caught illegally north of the border, these beers aren’t getting the right to vote in this election.

Liberal Wine
Hopefully what we’ll be hearing from the left for the next four years. Red and white available.

Cheap Lighters of the World

Through my travels, I found that I have accidently started a Cheap Lighters of the World collection. I have found that cheap lighters are one of those impulse buys that I have as I go through bazaars and souvenir shops. After all, at $10 or less, I always say "Why not?". Now that I have a collection going I will now need to actually look for these as I travel.

Note that there are serious collectors that spend thousands of dollars to build their collection of expensive, unique lighters, so while my collection is not elegant or fancy, it is at least easy on the budget.

Here is what I have so far:


Item: Soviet Tank Lighter
Type: Naptha (fluid)
Bought In: Lviv, Ukraine
Cost: 50 Hryvnia (about $10)

Perhaps this belonged to a Soviet tank commander? It would definitely make a good story as you lit up that capitalist cigar and bragged how you helped Reagan defeat the Evil Empire. However, as I inspected the lighter in the open air bazaar in Lviv, I noticed the bottom:

What they did is took an American Zippo lighter and glued on Soviet insignia, which were being sold all over the place in the bazaar. There were a glut of these items after the fall of the Soviet Union when soldiers sold whatever they had on them for hard currency. For only a few bucks you could buy enough military ribbons at the bazaar to make yourself a full Soviet general, although Hero of the Soviet Union and The Order of Lenin cost a few extra dollars.

Anyway, although a glue-together, I still thought it was cool, and for ten bucks - what the average monthly salary was when I was over there in 2000 - I said, why not?



Item: Japanese Disco Lighter
Type: Butane Torch
Bought In: Tokyo (Akihabara)
Cost: 600 Yen (about $6)
The neat thing about this lighter is that when it is opened, lights on the side of the thing go on and off in rapid succession, like if the jukebox were playing. The first thing people say when they see this thing in action is "That is sooooooo Japanese."



Item: Korean Traditional Scene Lighter
Type: Naptha (fluid)
Bought In: Seoul
Cost: 10,000 Won (about $9)
When I first saw this, I thought this was another "glue-on" like my Soviet Lighter. Turns out this is from a Korea company called ING that apparently does knock-offs of Zippo. And instead of this scene just being glued on, it is built into the lighter, with a clear coat on top, so it came out of the factory this way.


These are the only ones so far, although I have been to a lot more countries. I will now have to keep an eye out for cheap lighters when I travel. My next potential buy is in China, where I will probably be going some time in the next year or two. I am hoping I can find one with Mao on it since they have Mao everything there.

Putting My Job in Perspective

Sometimes you need someone to put things in perspective for you, as I found out during a lunch conversation last week when the subject of career came up:

"So, Mitch, how's the job?"
"It's okay. But it's not my dream job."
"Not your dream job, huh? Tell me, you spent a lot of last month in Korea, didn't you?"
"Yeah. I had two customers who wanted to tour our factories."
"And how much do you have to prepare for these meetings?"
"Not a lot. I sort of coordinate. The boys in the factory do the heavy lifting."
"And after basically sitting around the meeting all day, you then take the customers out to dinner."
"Yeah, wine-em and dine-em."
"And when you are not in some exotic locale eating and drinking, you live in Newport Beach and work out of your house, or out of a local sales office where you can come and go as you like?"
"Uh, yeah."
"And you get paid a lot of money to do this?"
"Hmm Hmm."
"So, Mitch, tell me, what exactly is your dream job?"

I sat there looking at her with an empty expression. As good as I got it (and I do got it good), this is not my dream job, and I had hard time explaining to her why. But she made her point, and it is something I need to keep in mind.

That being said, there is something missing in my current job, and it would be something that I would call a "mission" - this was something I had when a small group of us started a company that was going to revolutionize our industry and get us rich at the same time. It was an exciting time and the group of people I worked with and the things we worked on were both very motivating. Right now I have a good set-up and earn a comfortable living, and I do appreciate that, but the camaraderie and vision are missing.

One of my former co-workers from the start-up thinks that time was unique and none of us that worked there will have a similar experience again; that all other jobs and companies we work for after that will pale in comparison. I think she may be right, but with another 30 plus years of work to go, I hope she is wrong.

Another Stupid, but Relevant, Online Test

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I am due. This one seems accurate, except for the fact that I am not a chick:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What kind of blogger are you?

Hat Tip: Coffee with CrankyBeach

Potential Company Themes for Next Year

My company's internal email system automatically puts in a little yearly, rhyming theme onto the heading of our email next to our name. This year, the theme was "Together we Soar in 2004", last year was "Customer was Key in 2003".

As we get towards the end of this year, it looks like it is time to pick a new one for next year:

It's time to submit your entries for (My Company's) 2005 slogan. The slogan becomes part of our e-mail heading and is published internally throughout (My Company). The purpose of the slogan is to exemplify a theme by which the organization will govern itself in the year.

Based on how the tech segment is currently doing, my candidates are:

1. Staying Alive in 2005
2. Let's Try Not to Die in 2005
3. If We Don't Fix, We Won't Make it to 2006

Intel Chased Out of a New Market?

The largest chip company in the world can't make it in a market currently dominated by also-rans:

Intel has scrapped plans to offer a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) chip for big flat screen displays, a spokeswoman for the company has confirmed.

The chip giant had announced its plans to enter the big screen television market amid much fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

But those plans appeared to hit a bump in August when the company said the chips would not be available in time to bring down prices of big screen televisions during this year's holiday shopping season.

Intel actually has a spotty track record in mass-market, commodity driven markets. The company has grown fat on its defacto monopoly on PC processors, and does well in flash memory, but it is hard to point to another segment where Intel leads, and there are several other markets where they were chased out (image sensors being one of them). I guess they just aren't paranoid enough.

So Close...

No, not the Astros. Senior Fidel. He looks dead in the photo. Too bad it was just a nasty fall (click on picture for story).

It looks painful. I hope it was very, very painful. Maybe he'll get an infection and die very slowly, in a long, agonizing death. One can always hope.

(Ed: If you think this post is nasty, be thankful that it wasn't Ted Kennedy that took the fall)

Hat Tip: Right on Red

So Much for the Astros

Well, I was hoping for a Bush/Kerry World Series (Houston, Texas, Astros vs. Boston, Mass, Socks), but it was not to be. The Astros manager left Clemens in too long, and it cost them the game (I was shouting at the TV, "Pull Clemens before he tires out, not after!", but he apparently didn't hear me).

The Astros have never been to a World Series - ever - which even Cubs fans can't claim. I wonder if they will make it in my lifetime.

To be honest, I am a fair weather fan and really don't follow baseball at all until the playoffs, and only then if the Astros are involved. Since I really don't care one way or the other who wins the World Series, I won't be watching it.

Stop Me if You've Heard this One

Conservative: So a priest, a rabbi and the President walk into a bar...

Liberal: Bush doesn't drink.

Cons: What?

Lib: Bush doesn't drink. Why is he walking into a bar? Of course, he used to drink, and drink a lot, but I guess that's okay with you.

Cons: This is a joke. It isn't a real story. Besides, he won't be ordering a drink in the joke. How about I have them walk into a Starbucks?

Lib: More likely. He would support a member of the giant industrial-military complex that drives small mom-and-pop coffee houses out of business.

Cons: Can I continue?

Lib: By all means.

Cons: So the priest then asks the bartender, I mean the barista...

Lib: You know, Kerry is a Catholic and more likely to be with a priest than Bush.

Cons: Sorry?

Lib: Bush is a Protestant of some sort and I don't know about him having coffee with a priest. I do believe he would be with the rabbi, however, as he takes orders from the Zionists.

Cons: Okay. Okay. A minister, a rabbi and the President walk into a Starbucks.

Lib: Better.

....(two minutes later)....

Cons: (cracking up). So the minister says to the barista, "Well, in that case, make mine a double shot!"

Lib: Hmm. It would have been funny if it were a priest and they were in a bar.

Alex, I'll Take Consumer Products with a Limited Shelf Life for $400

Alex: Here's your answer: Unlike Halloween candy that is worthless on November 1 every single year, this retail item loses its value only once every four years, on the first Wednesday in November.

Contestant: What's political swag, Alex.

Alex: You are absolutely correct! Products like Halloween candy on November 1, Easter candy on Easter Monday, and Christmas ornaments on December 26 are essentially worthless to retailers. Political swag the day after the election is in the same category. Retailers have to walk a fine line of having enough inventory for customers before the event, but not having too much inventory after the event. As a result, we usually see the prices of these items decline in the days leading up to the event in order to burn off excess inventory. And, of course, blowout sales take place after the event itself once the inventory is worthless. Let's now hear a word from our sponsor.

As the 2004 presidential election campaign draws to a close, Spalding Group invites you to visit www.GeorgeWBushStore.com to order any additional items you may need before election day.

Act now and take advantage of a valuable special offer.

Place an order of $30.00 (to $49.99) and receive our most popular Bush-Cheney t-shirt (size XL) free as a bonus gift to you - a $13.95 value! Order $50.00 (to $79.99) and receive our Bush-Cheney '04 navy cap - by far our most popular cap - a value of $17.95! Order over $80.00 and receive both items - a value of $31.90!

(Qualifying total order value excludes shipping)

Update (Oct 22): The George W. Bush Store - www.georgewbushstore.com - offers Guaranteed 2-day delivery at no additional charge.

Prices are really going to start coming down next week...

Who Would You Want in a Foxhole with You?

Michelle Malkin discusses an interview with Ta-Ray-sah, who noted that if she were in a foxhole, she'd want to be with John Kerry.

Come on.

Here is my reverse priority list of candidates who I want in a foxhole with me and why:

4. Edwards - The pretty boy would just be sitting there combing his hair while grenades came lobbing in followed by a bayonet charge on our position. No thanks.

3. John Effing Kerry - John would be benefitial in negotiating our surrender, so as we both endured years of torture, I would have the extra pain of hearing him whine how all of this was against UN resolutions.

2. GW - We would just put the bayonets on and charge the enemy straight on, but we would take them out, and kill them twice for good measure.

1. Dick Cheney - Dick edges out W because I think Dick would be more devious in how to go #@$% up the enemy.

Update- To the commenter that I had to delete: this is called humor. Go out and find some.

Smart Guy. How Do I Give Him Money to Invest?

A venture capitalist (VC) has a great write-up on why he is voting Bush.

My experience with VCs (and I know a few) is that they are mainly limousine liberals who can afford to live with left-wing policies. After all, if you are flying around in a private jet, you don't exactly worry about Islamic hijackers, so this article is actually a bit refreshing.

Who Watches this Crap?

I had set my Tivo to record a D-Day invasion documentary on PBS. Someone screwed up at Tivo or PBS because instead of watching American troops waste their time liberating Europe so the Europeans could hold us in contempt, I got an episode of NOW with Bill Moyers.

I had never seen the show and I watched portions of it utterly astounded at the amount of outright lies and hypocrisies thrown about on this program. At least it admits it is a left-wing program, but I was still just amazed at the pretend world that these people live in.

The most interesting part of the program was a round table discussion with Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation and some guy named Kevin Phillips. Here, on an hour-long, tax-payer supported, nationally televised show that lambasts Bush and praises Kerry at every turn, they come out frothing at the mouth that Sinclair Broadcasting would have the nerve to televise something that would actually be critical of Kerry

Now, I'm willing to say I think it's probably an illegal thing. So, it should be fought like that. But to be just horrified? My God. This is a character assassination. This presumably is a second rate broadcast outfit, Sinclair.

Talk about living in an irony-free zone. Funny thing about liberals - they are the first to tear up the First Amendment if it is about something they disagree about.

The conversation about terrorism was also interesting. Here they tried to protect Kerry on his terrorism is a "nuisance" comment:

They turned it (terrorism) to their advantage, but what he was really speaking to is that the experience of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, of countries which have experienced terror is one where you manage it.

Yeah, those few hundred Spaniards killed just a few months ago shows how little a nuisance terrorism is in Europe these days.

On Iraq, read between the lines here. Phillips is hoping for deaths - lots more deaths - so that Kerry would cut and run:

I think what he's (Kerry) hoping for is that if he can wind up getting the election without having to say too much (about Iraq), that enough will happen between November and January, that there will be an increased public desire to wash their hands of it. And that would free him to accept less of a fig leaf he would want to discuss.

If I had time, I would go through the transcript and fact-check their ass, but it really isn't worth my time. It was actually rather sad watching them bumble around being inconsistent with their views, hypocritical on their positions, and having to stoop to outrageous claims to attack their political opposition. The really sad part is that my tax dollars support this nonsense, and I don't think they would be on the air if they actually had to compete for advertising dollars.

Permanent Loser Vs. a Second Run

Pundits on both sides agree that if Kerry loses that it will be the last time he runs for a national office. Sure, the lemmings in Massachusetts will keep electing him to the Senate, but he will be joining the ranks of Gore, Kemp, Dole, Dukakis, Ferraro and whole lot of others who fade into local obscurity or Viagra commercials after they lose a bid for one of the two top offices.

I predict, however, that if Bush loses that we are going to see a replay of this election in 2008. Hopefully he would stay in the limelight blasting the UN puppet regime Kerry administration as it raises taxes, hands U.S. security over to France and Germany, and otherwise makes a mess of both domestic and foreign affairs. Then he gets set up to run again in 2008. However, if there is a replay, Kerry won't be able to hide from his record as he has done in this election.

They Get Paid to Do This?

File under "duh": Analysis: 8 States May Decide Election

Let's see, that would be 16% of all the states and not exactly a big deal. It's actually a lot larger than the last election when one state decided the election.

I expect to see a lot more stupid headlines like this for the next three weeks. I will be so glad when this election is over.

Kerry Stoops to Fear Mongering

How's this for desparation - accuse your opponent of planning something he has outright said he won't do: Kerry Says Bush Plan Could Lead to Draft.

Reminder: Today is the LAST Day to Pay Your 2003 Taxes

For those of you who file an extension to push your tax filing to July, and then file yet ANOTHER extension to push it out until October, today is the very, very last day to file your 2003 taxes.

I don't wait until the last minute - I mailed mine in on October 13th.

Three Strikes? I'll Settle for One

If I had murdered my wife when I first met her, I'd be getting out about now.

- Common Joke Told by Men Going Through Divorce

I hear this joke from time to time, and considering that the average marriage lasts about seven years, it is more a commentary on our justice system than the institute of marriage.

Murderers sentenced to 30 years get out in 15 years, or seven. Rapists sentenced for 15 get out in five. Thieves sentenced for five get suspended sentences. Sentencing has become a meaningless exercise due to ever expanding parole guidelines foisted upon the prison system by soft-hearted liberals. In effect, nearly no one serves the time they are sentenced to and sometime much less than half. The response has been the "Three Strikes" law enacted in several states (including California) where someone convicted for their third felony gets locked up for a long sentence without parole.

Proposition 66 is on the ballot in the California election to "soften" the Three Strikes law since everyone feels so sorry when only a "minor" felony sends someone up the river for life. My response: tough. I don't care if criminals are in prison for "minor" felonies. If they commit three felonies, lock them up and throw away the key, even if the third strike is "only" cheating little old ladies out of money over the internet and no violence was involved. We don't send criminals to jail for committing violence, we send them to prison for committing crimes.

In addition, as SoCal Law Blog points out, a loophole in the proposed amendment that would make Prop 66 retroactive to 1994 would lead to the release of 26,000 inmates currently serving time if it is passed. Here is a list of some of the child molesters, serial killers, and rapists that will be returned to the California streets if this proposition passes.

As usual, "good intentions" by liberals will end up putting the rest of society at risk. If this passes and when (not if) someone is raped, mutilated, or murdered by one of the scumbags who are released, we'll hear not a word of sympathy for the victim from the kind-hearted folks who pushed for and voted for this law.

Astros Fans in SoCal Give Bush a Win

I had to bar hop tonight to find a place that had all the services I wanted AND was showing the Astros game. The first bar I went to had both the National and American league games on, AND Sam Adams, but they didn't serve food. The second place had food, but no Sam Adams and no Astros. The third was a just right: it had a TV with the 'Stros, a TV with the Yankees, and a third one on the debate. Plus they had Sam Adams. I found my spot for the evening.

So I watched the Astros lose from one eye and Bush win (from what I could tell from the close-captioning) from the other eye. In between I caught parts of the Yankees game (I'm smelling a sweep in that series).

The surprising part was that everyone at the bar was voting Bush, even though only a small fraction would admit to regularly voting republican. Maybe this was why everyone in the bar gave Bush the win, although I would have to admit that most everyone's attention was on one of the two games during most of the debate.

Sam Adams: Brewer, Patriot, Ukrainian?

One of my favorite things about Sam Adams is that he made a hell of a beer (okay, the Boston Brewing Company was founded in 1984 and the founder, Jim Koch, picked the name Sam Adams since "he was a firebrand and a brewer", but that's beside the point). Turns out there might be other reasons to love Adams besides all that liberty stuff. Jim sent me an email to a story that claims that Sam Adams was a Ukrainian-American:

Few know that a Ukrainian - more precisely, an American citizen of Ukrainian descent - was among the men known as the United States' "founding fathers." He is known as Samuel Adams, but his birth name was Samyilo Adamovich.

Samyilo's father came from a town located not far from L'viv. After the Russian-Swedish War in 1708, he moved to London...(and) changed his last name to the more natural "Adams." Later, Adamovich and his family went to seek their fortune in the New World.

In 1722, Samiylo was born in Boston.

Interesting, if true. I'll drink a few of these tonight during the Astros game to see if it gives me any more insight into the matter.

Sorry GW, the Astros Come First

This displaced Houstonian will be watching the Astros play in their first NLCS game tonight instead of the debate.

I was a long-suffering Astros fan in the 80s when Ryan and Scott were doing some incredible pitching, but the team could never muster enough offense to win major games, so they kept losing in the post-season. I stopped watching them altogether when I moved away in the late 90s, but am suddenly excited about their prospects.

I have a "single reception" Tivo, so I can watch one thing and record another at the same time. Maybe I'll head out to a sports bar and the let the Tivo record the debate...

A Good Question

If you could do something where you were guaranteed not to fail, what would you do?

I recently found out my corporate library has a whole shelf of motivational books and tapes, so I checked out a tape series for my short drives about town. My guess is that this material is mainly for our sales force since sales people are into this sort of thing.

I have read these sort of books before, and, in fact, had one of the grandfathers of this genre, Napoleon Hill, as required reading in business school. These books have a lot of "ra-ra" combined with large doses of psycho-babble, but every one of these books bring up a couple of questions, phrases, or suggestions that hit you between the eyes and really make you think.

I am five tapes into this six tape series by Tony Roberts (no smirking out there) and found a few good nuggets like the question above. The question struck me since I do think we all make compromises and decisions based on what we think we can't do rather than on what we want to do. I'm still thinking on this question since I haven't answered it yet. But the answer isn't what I'm doing now.

Overall, I find that the benefits of these sort of books outweigh the psycho-babble you have to wade through, but others have different experiences, ranging from cult-like devotion to outright rejection. My reaction is the middle ground, taking material from those sections that I find beneficial, but without taking it too seriously.

I've Devolved

While some major blogs like here and here have commended positively about the new TTLB Ecosystem, I seem to have taken a step backwards and devolved a rank. However, since the site is still having "problems" with loadings and what-not, I can't view my site statistics to see if there are simply more blogs in the ecosystem that have knocked me down a rank, or if the new counting method lowered my statistics.

Not that it really matters, except I thought my killer whale was much cooler than my fighting kangaroo.

Update: Well, I've evolved back to a mammal again after only a week. I must be on the cusp. I guess I better write some kick-ass articles so you people out there will link to them.

Is $200,000 a Year "Rich"?

Kerry has vowed to raise taxes on the "rich", specifically those who make $200,000 a year. Is this rich? There aren't a whole lot of people who earn this much (and Kerry can tell just by looking at someone), but there are a far larger number of people who make $100,000 a year, and if two of these people are married, they are now in the cross hairs of the democratic party.

So instead of a tax on the "rich", we can call this the "married middle manager tax".

If we look at household income instead of individual salaries, this represents the top 2% of households:

That might not sound like a lot of households, but if we look at the current tax burden in the U.S., it isn't like those top percentages aren't pulling their weight (this is by income, not household income, but should be proportional):




The key thing to keep in mind is that even if the Kerry proposal doesn't hurt you, taxes have a way of expanding to hit everyone. Consider:

o When income taxes were first introduced, it was only meant for the "rich"

o The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) was introduced as a tax on the "rich", but will hit nearly 17 million "rich" people by 2010 if it is not modified or repealed.

o Back-door taxes are enacted yearly through phase-outs of deductions and credits. This is the favorite way to increase taxes without actually changing the rates and gets little notice from taxpayers (all those "middle class" goodies like the child tax credit, college debt interest deduction and others start phasing out at a whopping $50K of income).

The basic premise of people who want to raise taxes is to raise taxes on "anyone who makes more than I do." The problem with this sort of class warfare is that it has a tendency to turn on the very people who enacted it.

UPDATE: Increasing tax rates on the "rich" apparently doesn't include Kerry and his wife, who paid less than 13% of taxes on income of $6.8 million. I don't know about you, but I make a lot less than that and pay an effective federal rate of between 21-25%.

Carnival of the Capitalists is Up

Business Pundit is hosting the two-year anniversary of the CoC. Yours truly made the list with my observations of Starbucks in Asia. Rob did a great job assembling a very large list of entries this week, so go take a look.

Bush Loyalty Quiz

After Bush mopped the floor with Kerry tonight, it seems time for the Bush Loyalty Quiz. My score? You need to ask?

Your score is 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are a True Believer in President Bush. Your loyalty and devotion to him is matched only by your desire to see his liberal detractors locked away and declared enemy combatants (Mitch: No, I prefer execution). If all Americans thought as you did, and were it constitutionally viable, George W. Bush would be president for life. (Mitch: Only because Reagan just died)

There's also a Kerry quiz for my enemies esteemed colleagues on the other side of the isle.

I Guess It Isn't Too Late to Send Your Party Money

As we enter the three week stretch for the election, I think that all the money for election spending is already earmarked. There are still mailings, phone banks, and other activities, but the time it takes to just process donations means that any money sent in now would probably come in after the election - a donation now really won't help things one way or another.

Of course both parties will likely have debts to pay off after the election, so any money will help, but the average voter is probably going to be tapering off his donation efforts as the campaign enters the home stretch.

The RNC apparently is aware of this notion and is doing something about it. I received a request for a donation today in the mail with a FedEx return envelope. Everything is there - a FedEx Airbill with the address made out to the RNC and an official FedEx Envelope.

I guess this flier conveys a higher sense of urgency than "please donate on-line today!", since on-line is definitely the fastest way to get money into your favorite campaign.

The other interesting thing about campaign requests is who "sends" the letters. On the RNC side I have received requests from George, Laura, Dick and various non-elected RNC officials. This one is from Dick, so he obviously dashed this off to me after he crushed the Boy Wonder in the debate.

Got a Novel in You?

Jim points me over to the National Novel Writing Month, which is a sort of self-competition for people to write a 175 page novel in the month of November.

I think everyone has thought at one time or another "I have at least one good novel in me," and it is something that has percolated in the back of my mind from time to time. In fact, I looked at blogging as a way to hone my writing skills for a potential work of fiction. You may have noticed I started putting dialogue into my blog about a month ago since that is one area I definitely suck at, and I thought practicing through my blog would be one way to improve.

I have taken a few running starts at short-stories. I even got a chapter in on a short story I was modeling on the Great Gatsby, which is one of my favorite pieces of 20th century literature. In this case the story would be from the Gatsby character point-of-view instead of the Carraway character. Here is how it started:

He woke up with her still in his dream. After all these years, almost forgotten, he had dreamt about her. She had taken his hand and smiled, communicating to him without words as she always could. As she clasped his hand in hers, he felt the overflowing love he had for her, the strength and courage she gave him. The feeling faded and he woke. He got up and turned on the lights, remembering where he was: Korea. Seoul. Intercontental Hotel.

He had thought that she was now nothing more than a pleasant memory from years ago which could be picked up and examined like a knick-nack off a shelf, turned over, replaced, and forgotten. But the dream brought back more than the look of her face. It brought back all the feelings he had felt for her. Feelings he had forgotten. Feelings he really hadn’t felt again.

What was she doing now, half a world away from half a lifetime ago? What would she think of what became of him and what he had become? Would she even care?

The idea was to watch the character do what he can - and how low he would go - to win back the girl from his past, even if the memory of her didn't match reality, an explicit theme made by Fitzgerald in his novel:

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

I have to think whether I will join the competition this year, although I would have to start over since you are not supposed to write word one until November 1.

I Voted!

I cast my vote at 1:30 in the morning nearly a month before the election. Is this a great country or what?

I signed up as a "permanent absentee voter" as soon as I could when I moved to California. In Texas, where I moved from in 1998, they had fairly strict standards on who could vote absentee - you had to swear a full month before the election that you were going to be out of town or physically incapable of making it to a voting booth. They have since become like California where pretty much anyone can do it, but at the time I came out here I saw California's absentee voting system as a great convenience for busy people like me.

In fact, the only election I ever only missed was due to strict absentee voting rules that were in effect at the time.

The year was 1992 and Bush was facing a tough re-election campaign from that upstart governor from the hick state of Arkansas. I was all set to vote in my second presidential election when at the last minute my company decided to ship me off to Boston. The absentee rules in Texas at the time required something like a month leadtime to get a ballot, so I was unable to vote. (my complaint got the response "Bush will carry Texas anyway, so don't worry about it").

So my ballot is going out in tomorrow's mail. I had forgotten it requires a stamp. I suppose this saves this state money, but couldn't this count as a (very small) poll tax?

The only bad thing about voting early is that between now and the election I will still receive approximately 1,375 mailers on how I should vote on various issues and candidates. California should have some sort of system for early absentee voters to opt out of these mailers. If they can't sway my vote any more, the people sending them definitely don't want to spend the money to send me one.

Selling Coffee in a Tea Culture

Do you remember your first time at a Starbucks? For me it was 1989 when a friend took me to one in Chicago right off Lake Shore Drive. I never heard of the place before, but they had these various coffee drinks that my friend had to explain to me: latte, cappuccino, Americano. Of course I had heard of these drinks before, I just didn't know that the difference was between them since I had never had one.

Fast forward 15 years and there isn't anyone in the U.S. who doesn't know what a cappacino, latte, or decaf, low-fat, one-pump, no-foam mocha is. The U.S. really has become a coffee culture, inventing whole new drinks like frappacinos.

The problem Starbucks has as it expands into cultures that have been traditionally tea based is teaching their prospective clients the ins-and-outs of a complicated drink list that Americans picked up over a multi-year period. This is why in some Asia countries you see these "little" helpful roadmaps for Starbuck's product offerings:

If you can't read it, this eight foot sign has a flow chart for hot beverages on the top half and one for cold beverages on the bottom half.

While Starbucks has been wildly successful in Japan, the coffee culture doesn't seem to have taken as deep a root in other Asian countries where I have seen them: Korea and Taiwan (they are in other countries over here, I just haven't been to them yet). They probably just need a little more time to get established in these traditionally tea-drinking countries, but for now their stores are definitely good places to meet other traveling Americans.

Dynamic Korea, Friendly Seoul

One of the amusing things to observe while traveling in Asia is the use of the English language. I don't mean those whose second (or third) language is English, but official government and business documents that have presumably gone through a professional interpreter.

Let's take the greeting above that welcomes visitors to Incheon airport. There is really nothing wrong with the phrase, and the meaning is perfectly understandable. What makes this banner and a lot of Asian English interesting is the word pairings and phrases that a native English speaker would not normally put together. It's these little word combos that make these signs amusing since maybe these word pairing should be used by native speakers (My favorite is the use of "let's" in Japan with a noun - for example "Let's coffee!").

There is, in fact, an entire web site called Engrish.com dedicated to these observations in Japan, where they are much more common, probably because businesses there try to use English much more than other Asian countries.

Sometimes the use of English is just plain wrong, which points to how hard the English language really is - a fact lost on most native speakers. For example, a friend and I saw someone in Japan wearing a t-shirt that said "I am Bisexual" We got the nerve to ask him if he knew what his shirt meant:

"Yes! Bi means two. Sexy means (he flexed his arms). So bisexual means twice as sexy!"

We looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. "You're right!" we said. Bi really does mean two, so this does seem to be a reasonable translation of the word. We saw no need to burst his bubble.

AM, PM, What's the Difference?

So I am relaxing Friday evening at home before my Saturday departure BACK to Korea for yet another customer meeting (I just got back from Korea a week ago). I had set my travel itinerary on my wife's desk and she was just taking a look at it.

"You're leaving in four hours?"

"What?"

"It says here that you're leaving at 12:30am."

"No. I am leaving at 12:30pm tomorrow afternoon, just like I did for my last trip."

"That's not what it says here"

"That must be a typo. Let me see that." My stomach starting dropping. I knew that Korean Air did have a midnight departure flight, and the itinerary did say 12:30am. "How can this be?"

I called KAL and confirmed that I was leaving in four hours. I also found out that there was not a single seat left on any of the four LAX-Seoul flights on Saturday day. Not one. If I were going to make it to Korea for my Monday morning meeting, I had to start packing.

"You're right," I said to my wife. "I told my admin to put me on the same itinerary as last time, and when I saw 12:30, I just assumed it was the same 12:30 AFTERNOON flight as I was on just two weeks ago. I guess I should have checked more closely."

My wife gave me the "how can someone so smart be so stupid" look. "I saved your ass."

She's right. Missing the meeting would not have been that big a deal, but I would have looked pretty stupid if I had to tell my management that I missed my flight due to an am/pm mix-up. To my defense, if the travel agency had used 24-hour time like every other ticket I ever had it would have said 0:30, which would have got my attention.

At any rate, that is why I am sitting here at 11:00pm in the LAX KAL lounge.

Funny thing about midnight flights at LAX - car traffic is incredibly light getting here, but the international terminal is just jammed packed. Every single country must have a red-eye leaving around midnight from this place.

Happy Bloggaversary to Me

So today is my 1 year blogging anniversary. This little post started it all:

Welcome to my blog. Commentary on anything that catches my eye.

365 days and 495 posts later here I am.

I started this blog out of sheer boredom at work. I really was a "window manager", spending my time looking out the window. I stumbled across the blogosphere some six months earlier and spent a lot of time reading blogs throughout the day, but I thought I could do that. I looked into how to set up a blog and received tips and encouragement from Techdirt and Jim Carson (Jim actually volunteered to host me, but I decided not to bother him and used Blogger - which has had its own share of problems over the past year).

The blog has ended up being more "personal observations" than either business or political analysis, which I thought it would be. There are simply better writers with more experience in both these areas, but I hope I add relevant points to each of these topics when I decide to comment on them.

So a year later is there a favorite post? I have had some serious posts, thoughtful posts, humorous posts, and plenty of stupid ones. I have had people tell me off-line about posts that they particularly liked, but the most positive feedback I have received was the explanation of my organizational structure from my previous company, which definitely goes into the humor column.