Give Me a Break category archive

Hamlet in 2800 words:

. . . there’s Ishmael from Moby-Dick: We set out. Follow @starbuck, @queequeg for long introspective soliloquies on the human soul. Or @tashtego if you like adorable kittens.

The fuss in the wingnutosphere about “White House Czars” is crap.

“Czars” is a media term. The title is “Advisor” (or some parallel thereunto). Their charter is to focus on specific topics on which administrative authority is scattered amongst a number of federal agencies–in other words, to make themselves experts in something or other.

They have no power nor authority, except to suggest policy to the president.

To the extent that wingnuts fulminate about “White House Czars,” they betray their (often willful) ignorance about how government works.

There, I’ve got that off my chest.

The University of Delaware is playing Delaware State University in a regular season football game for the first time ever; the current coaches of the two teams have worked together to make this happen (the UDel had a much harder row to hoe).

Everyone who cares about Delaware college football (that doesn’t include me since my kids are outta there) seems to be celebrating it as a big day. Indeed, it is such a big deal that the Philly PBS station is televising the game. PBS stations do not commonly broadcast college football games.

UDel is a much larger school with a strong football history and will likely crush DelState.

Why haven’t they played before? The local paper notes (emphasis added);

The schools’ proximity — less than an hour and fewer than 50 miles apart — makes their matchup a natural. So does their location in the same state, and as the only NCAA Division I-AA football programs here.

Those factors contributed to the oddity and decades-long curiosity about their failure to play football, which was rooted in UD’s administrative stubbornness, plus a historic economic and social disconnect between UD and historically black Delaware State.

Disconnect.

Yeah. That’s one way to put it.

Delaware was a segregated state. UDel was all white. DelState was all black.

When I was a young ‘un, white schools did not play black schools. Period.

“Disconnect.”

It is a good thing they got over it. It is a bad thing that persons seem mystified about why it’s taken so long.

Addendum:

Closer than expected: UDel 27, DelState 17.

At the link, there’s a picture captioned

Delaware State fans show their pride for the Hornets with plenty of red attire, homemade posters and colorful pompons.

It’s a picture of the DelState band in the stands. Of course, they are wearing red. They’re the band.

My daughter wore blue to all the games. She was in the UDel. band.

Except, of course, for the random killings:

A Kansas City driver, Ian E. Jones, who cut off another driver after pulling out into traffic is the victim of road rage. He nearly caused an accident by pulling into traffic, but it wasn’t a car crash that led to his death. It was the fact that the man who Jones’ car cut off was packing, and in true vigilante fashion he exacted his own version of justice on the now deceased Mr. Jones for his crime of reckless driving and failure to yield the right of way. This unknown victim of Jones’ poor driving habits took out his gun and shot Jones — dead.

Death is a hell of a price to pay for failure to yield.

I’ve got nothing against guns. Hell, I like guns. I taught both my sons how to shoot (would’ve taught my daughters too, but the opportunities didn’t arise–everyone should know gun use and gun safety).

But the notion that a country full of hot-headed rubes packing heat will somehow enforce civility is dumber than reality TV.

My brother recently signed up for Verizon FiOS. Apparently his service from Comcast was not so good as mine, which has been pretty much rock-solid for over five years (broadband) and I can’t remember how long (cable TV).

When he signed up, he asked if that meant that “Jane from Verizon,” their robovoice, would no longer call him. He was told that it did. I must delete over a dozen calls from “Jane from Verizon” from my answering machine every week.

Verizon’s marketing model revealed:

Have “Jane from Verizon” harass you with so many telemarketing calls you finally give in Just To Make Her Go Away.

This is pretty disgusting.

Someone is driving around upper Delaware shooting darts at bicyclists.

So, after selling dodgy mortgages using high-pressure sales techniques, they turn around and buy up the houses that are “distressed.”

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT.N), which buys distressed home loans and is run by several former Countrywide Financial Corp executives, on Wednesday raised $320 million from an initial public offering, $80 million less than planned.

Health Insurance CEO compensation in 2008 would pay for a lot of doctor visits.

Any wonder they don’t want change?

1. Ron Williams, Aetna: $24,300,112

2. H. Edward Hanway, CIGNA: $12,236,740

3. Angela Braly, WellPoint: $9,844,212

4. Dale Wolf, Coventry Health Care: $9,047,469

5. Michael Neidorff, Centene: $8,774,483

6. James Carlson, AMERIGROUP: $5,292,546

7. Michael McCallister, Humana: $4,764,309

8. Jay Gellert, Health Net: $4,425,355

9. Richard Barasch, Universal American: $3,503,702

10. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth Group: $3,241,042

Total: $85,429,970

At my doctor’s full rate for an office visit ($87), that’s just shy of 1,000,000 visits.

And that’s only the top dogs.

Via Bartblog.

Personally, I’m going to blame Andrew Sullivan for this kind of over-the-top gaga tongue-hanging-out hype, simply because I can (emphasis added):

It began as the kind of thing a hip young iPhoner would do, then won endorsements from people such as Stephen Fry and Oprah – who knew celebrities would want to let their fans know every time they left the house? – and then, most extraordinarily, it began to play a role in times of extreme crisis, getting information out of countries such as Iran and China where the authorities were tightly controlling the news.

And to top it all, this amazing journey – from plaything to instrument of social change – seems to have happened in a matter of months.

Despite almost 400 years of family history on this side of the Big Pond (since 1613, if you must ask, or even if you mustn’t), with veterans, doctors, yeoman farmers in the family history, with never missing a state or federal election since I was old enough to vote, with ancestors who probably met the boats their ancestors arrived on, with having a son who’s getting ready for his third tour in the Middle East, I am apparently still not a real American because I don’t agree with them.

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It’s time to retell my Best Buy story.

Where they are, I ain’t.

Starting July 19, Best Buy’s “Twelpforce” will search Twitter posts to find people seeking information about flat- panel televisions and other electronics, Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge said in a telephone interview today. More than 500 employees at stores and at the company’s Richfield, Minnesota headquarters are signed up to participate, he said.

’nuff said.

(Norway’s) Norges Bank will Twitter its interest rate decision on Wednesday.

I guess somebody is twitting about something other than their lunches and doctor visits and convenience store purchases and latest self-back-patting.

Dell said on Thursday it has raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases. The company, which has posted to Twitter about two years and tracks the sales with proprietary software, made more than $1 million in the past 6 months.

Aside: I like Dells. I have four or five Dell computers in all sizes and shapes come to think of it, they’re all rectangular that have given me excellent value for the money and, the few times I’ve had to call tech support, they’ve been excellent (then, again, I don’t go up the wall simply because the person who answers the phone happens to speak with an accent).

If they can make money carnival-barking on Twitter, more power to them.

But I won’t be there.

So I’ve spent the weekend getting my old boat ready. It’s licensed, cleaned, vacuumed, and polished. The battery holds a charge and the motor starts just fine even with two year old gas.

The trailer tires are pumped, the winch cable has been replaced, everything with a grease fitting has been greased, and this, and that, and so on.

And today’s forecast: Thunderstorms.

Little open boats and thunderstorms do not work and play well together.

The cover has been returned.

The shakedown cruise has been postponed.

Bay Buchanan has once again responded to critics of her karate chopping employee Marcus Epstein. This time, though, she’s taken it to the website of the conservative magazine Human Events.

(snip)

She also writes this: “What happened next was a modern day lynching by a faceless, angry, ignorant mob who reveled in the collective assault on their victim.”

Let us consider this critically.

Here’s a guy who gets drunk and, while weaving his way home, attacks a female passer-by just because she happens be Not While, gets arrested, and pleads guilty.

And, when folks notice that, in addition to being a felon who attacks persons without provocation just because of their color, he is also feeding at the wingnut trough and point that out, they get accused of being a faceless, angry, and ignorant?

Faceless, maybe. Some persons commenting on this have posted photos and some have not.

Angry, probably. Unprovoked brutality tends to provoke anger, both in victims and in bystanders.

Ignorant? Hardly. Rather, knowledgeable.

But it’s a wingnut thing: If you got nuttin’, make stuff up and call names.

This is a dumbness problem:

Indian River School District officials have promised new training for teachers and staff in the wake of two Sussex Central High School teachers’ arrests this week on charges they had sexual contact with students.

Their arrests follow the September conviction of former principal Dana Goodman, who pleaded guilty to having repeated consensual sex with a 17-year-old student last year.

TPMDC speculates.

In your dreams.

. . . .a party guest got into an argument at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, then got a handgun from his car. The suspect returned and began shooting.

A man and a woman were killed. The 10-year-old and a man were grazed in the head and another man was shot in the wrist.

Wessing says when police arrived, patrol cars were hit by gunfire and one officer was shot in the left arm.

A hot-tempered nutcase with a gun is still a hot-tempered nutcase.