The Jefferson Mammoth

The Home of Jefferson

2008-06-27T00:01:00.002-04:00

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson

The rear of Monticello.

Disney Concert Hall

2008-06-20T09:26:00.001-04:00

This week's Friday photo is the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Saw it somewhere on tv last night. I was in LA a few years ago for work. I walked up Grand Ave past the Disney Concert Hall everyday to go to the job we were working on. One suggestion for you, try to avoid walking back down Grand at 2am. I had a guy come up to me and ask for money. That's no big deal, but when he stuck his hand in his pocket I thought for sure he was going to pull out a knife or gun. Instead he pulled out a handful of change to show me what he had.

Four years ago

2008-06-13T15:18:00.004-04:00

Four years ago today I was in Milwaukee. What's that have to do with anything? I don't know either, but I when I was there I spotted this sign. I hadn't seen one in a while before I was there and I don't think I've seen one since.

I don't know if Milwaukee is the socialist haven that it used to be, but maybe they keep (at least keep the signs up anyway) fallout shelters for when guys like me visit.

Go Sam Go!

2008-06-11T06:55:00.002-04:00

I am a big Bengals fan. Yes, I root for that sorry team from Cincinnati. The last time they made the Super Bowl the coach was Sam Wyche. I stumbled across a link yesterday about Wyche running for the Republican nomination for Pickens County (SC) Council. It turns out he defeated the incumbent by a wide margin. Here's hoping he wins the general election and makes a positive difference in that community.

I would be completely remiss if I didn't put up this video. It is one of my all time favorite sports moments.

Still here

2008-06-06T01:10:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged here regularly, oh, probably ever, but every so often I do wish to put something up for the world to see that doesn't qutie fit in over at Tertium Quids (where I very infrequently post). I'm no Jane from Conservativa fame, but I do like to take pictures so I think I'm going to put up some shots every once in a while (however terrible they may be). I may offer some commentary, but I don't think any is necessary this time, other than to say it is from the WWII memorial in DC.

Term Limits

2007-06-23T02:04:00.000-04:00

I recently (and finally) finished reading Michael Tanner's Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution. It is a decent book that points out many places where the Republican Party has gone astray. Tanner certainly does not have much love for President Bush.

One topic I had never given much serious thought to is term limits. Tanner mentions them in his book and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. The likelihood of them being enacted, I regret to say, is about as probable as me going to Mars.

The idea certainly resonates with voters. Tanner notes that during the 1990s “voters in 21 states approved term limits for their members of Congress.” Unfortunately those victories were overturned in a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton. In the opening paragraph of his dissent Justice Thomas writes:

Nothing in the Constitution deprives the people of each State of the power to prescribe eligibility requirements for the candidates who seek to represent them in Congress. The Constitution is simply silent on this question. And where the Constitution is silent, it raises no bar to action by the States or the people.

I am certainly no lawyer, but that seems reasonable to me. And I imagine I am much more likely to agree with Justice Thomas rather than Justice Stevens (who wrote the majority opinion).

Tanner used two simple quotes that got me thinking.

Former Congressman and current South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford stated, “If I’d viewed my career in Congress as the next 30 years of my life, I think I would have been a lot more hesitant to bring up Social Security.” I would suggest that Social Security could be replaced by any issue.

Former Congressman Matt Salmon noted, “The independence that comes from limiting my terms has enabled me to vote against the bloated budget deal of 1997, and to challenge my own party’s leadership.”

Where are those who challenge the leadership now (on either side of the aisle)? Once in Washington our Congressmen and women seem to fall in line and shut their traps, worrying more about their career trajectory than the fools that elected them.

I do not know what would have to happen for term limits to be passed into law, but I can dream, can’t I? Nothing would warm my heart more than to see a bunch of unemployed career politicians.

Terry Hoeppner - RIP

2007-06-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

This news is a couple of days old, but I thought it was worth mentioning the sad passing of Terry Hoeppner from complications of brain cancer. He was the head football coach of the Indiana Hoosiers and former head coach of Miami University. From all accounts he was a good coach and an outstanding man. I hope his family is able to find comfort in knowing that he had a profound effect on many student athletes.

This marks the third passing in the last year of former Miami head coaches. Randy Walker passed away just about a year ago from a sudden heart attack and Bo Schembechler also passed away. Walker and Hoeppner were the two coaches that were at Miami when I was there.

Thanks Joe

2007-06-19T16:53:00.001-04:00

I'm a week late and $7 short, but better late than never. I wanted to thank Joe Blackburn for stepping up to the plate and challenging Walter Stosch. Every Virginian who values the money in their pocket owes Mr. Blackburn a debt of gratitude.

It will be interesting to see what Walter Stosch shows up next session. I'm not holding my breath, but hopefully Blackburn scared him back to the right.

The other interesting part of this, as Norm has noted, will be if Allen can repair his image with the conservative activists who are baffled by his endorsements of Stosch and others. I believe it will be a long, very long, road back.

The Obsolete State

2007-01-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

So I haven't blogged in forever. This probably isn't the start of regular blogging again, but it could be. There are a few things that are worth mentioning. First, Norm is hanging up the keyboard. Hopefully he'll continue over the Cost Cutting Caucus Blog.

Another thing that I have not seen mentioned is the Virginia Institute for Public Policy study entitled The Real Story of Eminent Domain in Virginia: The Rise, Fall, and Undetermined Future of Private Property Rights in the Commonwealth. It may very well have been mentioned elsewhere and I fully admit to having my head in the sand lately.

If you have not read the above study I strongly encourage you to do so. There are those out there who claim Virginia does not have a property rights problem, but I am afraid they are mistaken. We do have a problem and it is one that needs to be addressed. I might add that it should be addressed to fix the problem, not to pay lip service to the idea. This is not a left or right issue. There is no right more fundamental than private property rights.

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete, but so is the state, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under "M" for mankind—in the Twilight Zone." - Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone "The Obsolete Man"

The Sci Fi channel had a marathon this weekend of the Twilight Zone. I liked the above quote. Is Virginia on the path towards obsolescence? If the GA fails to protect property owners again this year I am afraid the answer will be "yes".

A Vision for Victory for Virginia

2006-09-25T13:28:00.000-04:00

I was able to make it last Friday to Williamsburg for the Virginia Institute's Vision for Victory in Virginia. It was an excellent event. I wish I could have been there all three days.

On Friday former Congressman Dick Armey, Senator Ken Cuccinelli, Delegate Rob Bell, and others from the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute spoke. Additionally, there was a Thomas Jefferson reenactor Friday evening. He was excellent.

I hope to post some comments over the next week about what was talked about (and I still hope to post some more about the Senate Leadership Summit as well).

Many thanks to VIPP for putting this on.

Cantor Calls on Webb to Stop Religious Attacks and Focus on Issues

2006-09-20T22:02:00.000-04:00

This was put out today by the Cantor campaign. It is worth posting in its entirety. I don't understand the bizarre fascination on Allen's genealogy by the Webbites.

Richmond, VA—Responding to attacks by the Jim Webb campaign, Congressman Eric Cantor (VA- 07) released the following statement.

“Throughout his career and campaign, Senator Allen has been a leader focusing his energy and efforts on making our Commonwealth a great place to live, work, and raise our families.

“I applaud Senator Allen’s efforts to stay focused on the issues that matter to Virginians throughout this campaign.

“In the primary, Jim Webb produced and mailed a cartoon of his Jewish opponent depicting him with a long nose and money coming out of his pockets, calling him the anti-Christ of outsourcing. His Democrat opponent rightly condemned this anti-Semitic ploy.

“Now, we learn that Jim Webb’s campaign operatives, on his behalf, have been pushing a story that George Allen has Jewish relatives.

“In some perverse way Jim Webb believes that this will cost Senator Allen votes.

“Jim Webb is dead wrong. The people of Virginia are fair minded, honest, and moral. Appeals to bigotry fail in Virginia, because Virginians look to a person’s integrity and character. Jim Webb is failing this test of integrity. It is time for Mr. Webb to start talking about the real issues facing the Commonwealth and America.

“I am proud to have Senator Allen as Virginia’s Senator and my friend; he has made Virginia a better place to live.”

Paid for and authorized by
Cantor for Congress

Senate Leadership Summit

2006-09-20T21:48:00.000-04:00

I was fortunate enough to attend the Senate Leadership Summit for Young Professionals today. Over the next couple of days I plan on covering what some of the speakers talked about, my take, and what I heard from others.

The list of speakers and panelist was impressive. They were:

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (who was the summit chair)
Senator Lisa Murkowski
Senator John Sununu
Senator John Thune
Senator Lamar Alexander
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chow
Carly Fiorina - Former Chairman and CEO, HP
Dan Mitchell - Heritage Foundation
Dr. John Goodman - President and CEO, National Center for Policy Analysis
Charles Miller - Chairman, US Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education
Stig Leschly - Founder and Managing Partner, SRL Capital Managment LLC
Rosie Mauk - Former Directory, AmeriCorps
Bill Taylor - Co-Founder and Founding Editor, Fast Company Magazine
Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services

I've got a lot of notes. I'm glad I was able to take the day off and go to DC today and while I certainly didn't agree with everything I heard, it was well worth it.

Webb's good politics, bad policy tax cut proposal

2006-09-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

The good people at the Tax Foundation have a post up about Jim Webb's proposal to cut taxes for veterans. The proposal would give a 5% tax break for veterans. On the surface it sounds like a good idea, one that I might support. However, it deserves a little more scrutiny. Webb claims one of the things it would do is:

And one of the things that that would do, by the way, in my view, is to bring more people from across class lines into the military.

I suppose that may be true, but as the Tax Foundation points out

There are better ways to accomplish that goal rather than via the tax code whose complexity makes it to where you may not actually help those you are intending to help.

The best point made is this:

If the purpose of this proposal is to reward veterans for the value of their service that they have provided to society, why is the value of one veteran’s service a function of his/her current income?

Good question. To illustrate if veteran A makes $100,000 and veteran B makes $30,000, who is going to see the most benefit? Obviously veteran A. As the left would say, this is a tax cut for the rich. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a 5% reduction for everyone (including the "rich"), but when you're trying to help veterans, income should not play a role. The only difference in reward should possibly be based on length of service and rank.

I would rather see our veterans rewarded in other ways. Cut them a check, raise their pay, increase benefits, but increasing the tax code complexity and rewarding only those who make enough to actually notice a benefit is the wrong way to do it.

The Weakly Webb Woundup

2006-09-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

In the event you haven't seen it, the first edition of the Weakly Webb Woundup is up over at I'm not Emeril. Good stuff. I'm a proud member of the B-Team. If there was a C-Team I'd probably be on it, but I'll happily ride the pine on the B-Team.

Do Virginians wear cowboy boots?

2006-09-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I went to Field Day of the Past and I can confirm that, indeed, Virginians do wear cowboy boots. Ward has his thoughts here.

Webb claims that "there are no cowboys in Virginia." Fortunately there won't be enough voters for Webb to make him Senator.

Random Friday Thoughts

2006-09-15T11:28:00.000-04:00

The Reds are no longer in a tie for first and it looks like they won't make the playoffs. At least the Bengals will win the Super Bowl and the Buckeyes will win the BCS Championship this season.
My wife and I go to the Y four times a week. Last week I heard the Spin Doctors on the radio twice. Don't think that had happened since about 1993.
Golf announcers are the worst in sports. And that's without Brent Musburger in the booth.
Mohawks are making a big comeback. I'm not sure who was first, but SR Sidarth had one (it was a mohawk, or close enough), Chad Johnson (whose mohawk cap you can buy), other football players, and a kid I saw the other day have had mohawks. I've just got one thing to say - I pity the fool.
Ok, one other thing, "I ain't gettin' in no plane, Hannibal."
This is old, but Ralph Sampson (he's like the new old Shawn Kemp), like the founder of the university he attended, wants also to be known as a father of the country.
More proof that Hollywood is full of short people comes from the Smoking Gun picture of Haley Joel Osment. 5'4" and 115 pounds. A good gust of wind would blow him down.

Webb on the 2nd Amendment

2006-09-14T11:46:00.000-04:00

When it comes to protecting our 2nd Amendment rights there is only one Senate candidate I trust - George Allen. Jim Webb claims he supports the 2nd Amendment, but would he support another infringement on our rights by working to enact another Assault Weapons Ban?

From a recent VCDL alert regarding the large Webb contingent at the Roanoke gun show comes this:

MOST [Webb supporters] stated Mr. Webb would not vote for any more gun laws restricting our gun rights. One spokeslady talked to us for quite some time--she stated Mr Webb supported our rights--then she made an eye opening statement--- she stated Mr Webb was like President Clinton, and would not be a part of any new gun laws------when I asked her--"What about the assault weapons ban of 1994?", she did NOT know what I was talking about!

Renewing the the AWB (aka Clinton gun ban) may be popular among leftist (Neal supports it, RK does too) and Webb has publicly stated "That's the difference between, between self protection and military style weapons and I wouldn't have a hard time saying that the people don't need fully automatic weapons."

Whether he means people shouldn't have machine guns or any "military style weapon" (by style is he talking aesthetics?) doesn't matter. I should have the right to own a machine gun if I want one (I think I just heard an "OH MY"). Someone tell me, how many crimes have been committed with legally owned machine guns since 1934? Also, I wonder, without looking it up, can you tell me what the Assault Weapons Ban did? The items that were outlawed, what crimes did they prevent? Anyone? Despite all the cries about blood in the streets, the sunset of the ban has not caused an increase in crime.

The ignorance of the RK crowd is amazing. This statement regarding AK-47s cracks me up:

Hell you'd prolly kill half your family by firing the damn thing in your home if you didn't know what you were doing and were startled by a burglar.

Uhhh, ok. Please tell me, how exactly would that happen? A startled homeowner is going to start randomly firing into the dark and kill their family? You've got a nice imagination, but in the real world things like that don't happen.

From Lowell on the Webb for Senate blog we find this little gem posted on August 4, 2006:

On guns, Webb is a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment. He has never changed his position on this issue since I've known him (12/05).

Let me get this straight. Lowell had at that time known Webb for 9 months and is holding that up as something to be proud of. Check out this post to see Webb's history of endorsements. He doesn't seem to have a history of keeping a position for long (unless, of course, it may be regarding women in the military).

So, first off, I don't believe Webb will be as strong a 2nd Amendment supporter as Senator Allen and, even if I did believe it, I would also believe that his position would change depending on which way the wind was blowing.

One more bit from another VCDL alert:

Quote for the day from "Lord of War" with Nicolas Cage, who plays an arms broker, "There are over 550,000,000 firearms in worldwide circulation. That is one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is ... how do we arm the other eleven?"

Lastly, today is my birthday (I'll give anyone who can correctly guess my age a nice round of applause), I've been wanting either an AK-47 or an SA58. Maybe I'll actually order one.

Also posted here.

The Democratic Party is not the answer

2006-09-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

South of the James is definitely one of the top blogs in Virginia. It is well written, always respectful, and Conaway seems like a genuinely good guy. One of my regrets about Sorensen is not having met him.

That said, I do not think he could be more wrong about which party is best for improving our Virginia, country, and world. Conaway recently posted

….it is quite clear that one political party best reflects my values and works hard to create the kind of Virginia, America, and world that I want to live in. That organization, my friends, is the Democratic Party.

If all Democrats were like Mr. Haskins it would be much more difficult to say that the Democratic Party is not the answer. But they aren’t. And it isn’t.

I have volunteered in the past and will continue to volunteer for Republicans in the future. The Republican Party is not perfect, but it happens to be that one party has the car in park while the other has it in reverse. There are exceptions, but for the most part the few elected officials in Washington and Richmond who do not have their head in the sand (or elsewhere) are Republicans.

Maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but what are the Democratic Party ideas? What are their solutions to important issues? When it comes to reform, they are nothing more than the party of no. For instance, if I were to say, we need to reform _______ (fill in the blank). The answer would be NO. If I were to replace reform and say, we need to create a government program to fix _______ (fill in the blank). The answer would be yes. Absolutely yes.

The answer to education issues is always to spend more money. The suggestion of school choice is nearly enough to send a democrat into hysteria. The answer, I suppose, is more money. Well, money has been flowing into education like crazy lately. What have we ended up with? Taj Mahal like schools and highly compensated teachers. Are our kids any smarter? Not according to anything I have read.

The Democratic answer to health care problems? Government health care – because the public is too dumb to decide what they need. According to Hillary Clinton people would buy beer and cigarettes rather than get their kids medical attention.

Social security? It may need fixed, but if by fixed you mean you might let people put a small portion of the money they earn into a personal account then you have lost your mind. Let people keep their own money? Privatization? Ridiculous.

The list could go on and on. When it comes to taxes, spending, national security, and nearly all of the important issues the Democratic Party is in the dark. Someone let me know when they decide to turn on the light.

Remembering 9/11

2006-09-11T11:57:00.000-04:00

I don't have any particularly interesting story from 5 years ago, but it is a day I'll never forget. I walked into work just a few minutes before the the second plane hit. Everyone was in the kitchen watching the tv when it did. It was hard to really grasp what was happening.

My wife and I had been married for a month, lived in Virginia for three weeks, my wife's birthday had just passed, my birthday was coming up, and my friend had just joined the Army on September 4th. There probably isn't a time in my life that I remember so well.

I don't have any particular connection to New York. At that time I had never been to NYC and I had only driven past the Pentagon and not been inside. What I will always associate with that day is the sight of people jumping out of the towers. The sound will always stick with me too. The French filmmakers who happened to be in NYC that day whose film was shown again on CBS last night cemented that sound. It is hard to imagine feeling that hopeless.

I'll also never forget the story of Flight 93. Heroes.

We should never forget what happened five years ago. I continue to pray that our elected officials will have the strength and courage to do what is right to defeat our enemies.

"Steptember" Health Initiative

2006-08-31T10:44:00.000-04:00

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced yesterday his plans to participate in the "Steptember" initiative to help Virginians lose weight. The LG plans to lose 30 pounds by the end of the year. Good for the LG. I hope others follow his lead.

Here are two releases about it:
Lt. governor urges residents to join effort to create a leaner state

The Steptember Initiative - Statement of Lieutenant Governor Bolling

The best part about it is that it does not use state dollars - it's a private partnership with America on the Move and the YMCA of America. As I commented not long ago, I don't think obesity is a government problem. That's why this -

In a study performed by the University of Baltimore, researchers looked at what states are doing to treat obesity as a threat to public health. The study revealed that Virginia received a D for state efforts to control obesity and an F in state efforts to control childhood obesity.

- doesn't bother me. In fact, the state should put forth zero effort in the way of tax dollars to "control obesity." It's a shame that people are obese, but it's not the role of the government to protect us from ourselves becoming overweight.

That said, don't wait until the beginning of the year to make a resolution to meet your fitness goals. Those are often about as meaningful as a UN resolution - not very. Make the decision now to get in shape. Join the LG in his worthwhile effort and make Virginia healthier.

Virginia Conservative Convention

2006-08-30T12:04:00.000-04:00

It's still early, but if you haven't already heard the Virginia Conservative Convention is coming up on November 11 in Richmond. I have not signed up yet, but I will definitely be there.

Personal protection

2006-08-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

Every time I hear about an abduction, break in, home invasion, or similar occurence it only strengthens my conviction that people should take their personal protection seriously. Recently there have been a number of tragic stories where sick people have taken the lives of others. Unfortunately, it's really not anything new, but some of the recent cases have hit a little closer to home than usual.

My wife and I both have our concealed handgun permits. I would encourage anyone reading this to do the same. Find a good trainer, take a safety course, and practice, practice, practice. I also think it is important to mentally prepare yourself for bad situations. The police cannot always help us and ultimately your protection comes down to one individual - you. That responsibility should be taken seriously.

Random Friday Thoughts

2006-08-25T10:32:00.000-04:00

I didn't post a recap of the last TMG meeting due to lack of time, but one of the speakers was talking about school choice. He said (I'm not sure if it was intentional) that those in private schools were getting the treatment. That made me wonder, are those in public school getting the placebo? In most cases I think so.
The Reds are in a tie for first. Keep your fingers crossed we stomp the Giants, Dodgers, and Padres.
Marcus Allen has a brother that plays in the CFL? Who knew?
We have a water cooler at work and now we have a picture of General Jack Ripper with the quote "And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids" over the top of it. Is that the best quote to use? And if you aren't reading Richmond War Room, you should.
It's nearing the end of summer and Edgar Winter still has a better tan than I do.

AFP kicks off Taxpayer Trust Tour

2006-08-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

Americans for Prosperity kicked off their Taxpayer Trust Tour yesterday at a press conference at the Patrick Henry building in Richmond. I was able to sneak out of work for a little bit and made it downtown. Whitney Duff did an excellent job. Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s Executive Vice President, Michelle Korsmo, was also there from AFP and did an outstanding job as well. Delegates Chris Saxman and Chris Peace were there as well. They both did a good job too.

AFP will be in Virginia Beach today followed by Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Winchester, Fairfax and Fredericksburg the rest of the week. The entire schedule can be found here.

Whitney made some good points:

It is clear to us at Americans for Prosperity Foundation that without substantive changes in the culture of spending in Richmond, Virginia taxpayers will likely face this same scenario every 2 years, which is why we are here today to kick-off our state-wide Taxpayer Trust Tour.

One very basic example of this out of control spending culture is evidenced by the allocation of nearly $37 million in pork-barrel grants to more than 300 museums, theaters, tourist attractions and other pet projects across the Commonwealth this year.

For example. $5,000 for the Franconia Museum. $87,500 for the Virginia Museum of Transportation. $500,000 for the Richmond Ballet. $1.25 million for Wolf Trap.

Over the last decade there has been $200 million spent on earmarks. As Del. Saxman said yesterday, that is money that could have been used towards congestion relief. Spending money on a transportation museum would be hilarious if it were not so sad.

The event was well attended by the media, but up to this point the Washington Examiner is the only place I could find that has it online. A quote of interest:

“Eighty percent of the budget is comprised of education, health care, debt service on funding prison construction, car tax rebate and the rainy day fund. If they are proposing cuts in any of those five, I’d be interested to hear what they are,” said Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria.

He said the commonwealth has been named the best-managed state by the Government Performance Project, the best place to do business by Forbes, and ranks 41st highest in the nation for its state- and local-tax burden on citizens, according to the Tax Foundation.

I wonder, what percentage of the budget is comprised of "debt service on funding prison construction"? Is it really that large of a percentage? I doubt it. I suppose he is required by some sort of law (or Democrat party oath) to make people think that if the state were to attempt to cut spending (or at least reduce the rate of growth) that prisoners would run the streets.

Also, if you have any ideas about ways to improve the state, keep them to yourself. Governemnt Performance Project and Forbes have ranked Virginia number 1. Apparently that means there are no further improvements that can be made. Shut down the ideas people. Government is as efficient as it is going to get. Open your wallets and shut your mouths, any mention of reform will be mocked. Pay your taxes and like it baby.

Surely Del. Moran can't be serious. Does he really believe government is as efficient as it can be? Our representatives should attempt to be good stewards of our tax dollars. AFP is doing good work helping educate the taxpayers of Virginia. The standard lines about "paving the streets with textbooks, prisoners running the streets, etc" used by the big government types are really getting old.

State surpluses

2006-08-16T10:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the light (nonexistent?) blogging lately.

Government Bytes, the blog of the NTU, has a post up asking, So where's my refund? Here are the important numbers:

states ended fiscal 2006 with $57.1 billion in surpluses, up from $45.8 billion the previous year

Imagine if consumers and businesses had that money in their pockets. Wouldn't that seem to be the wise thing to do? I don't understand the big government mindset. Between these types of surpluses at the state level and ridiculous spending at the federal level taxpayers are being taken to the woodshed and I'm afraid most don't even know it.

Is Obesity a Government Problem?

2006-08-06T21:29:00.000-04:00

A while ago I stumbled across this article - Jobless or Overweight. Additionally, I am on an email list that frequently includes recent developments in the world of health and nutrition. In those emails the USDA, FDA, and other government agencies are somewhat frequently mentioned.

That got me thinking about what, on the state level, the government is doing (or attempting to do) for us in the way of health. This led me to the Office of Health and Human Resources. I am a somewhat health conscience person. Despite that you probably can't tell, I enjoy working out and I usually eat fairly healthy. In my opinion it is my responsibility to take care of myself. It is certainly not the problem of the government.

Without a doubt there are many overweight Americans and Virginians. While finally reading through some of the budget document (Part B of the 2006-08 Biennial Budget) I noticed one of the objectives for “Local Chronic Disease and Prevention Control” is to reduce the percentage of the adult population who is obese from 23.7% (in 2002) to 22% (by 2007).

A worthy goal? Certainly. The job of the government? I don’t think so. Doing a search of just Part B of the budget document turned up nine instances of the word “obesity” and three instances of “obese”. Granted, it is an 894 page document, but think about it for a moment - is that a word that belongs in a government budget document? Is educating people about obesity and having the goal of reducing obesity the necessary and proper role of government?

I have two big issues with this. The first is that regardless of how much money is being spent on fighting obesity, it is too much. People should take personal responsibility for their weight. I do not care how much you weigh and neither should the government.

In elementary school I was a rather hefty kid. Between 6th and 7th grade I took it upon myself to lose weight. The primary reason is that I wanted to play football, but I also knew that I was overweight. If a 6th grader can come to the realization that they are overweight, take action with no government help, and lose 15 pounds during the summer then I think most adults are capable of the same, again, without government action.

The second issue I have is that I do not believe the government can be effective at promoting this type of change. I would be willing to bet that television shows like Biggest Loser, books like Body-for-Life, and all of the advertising done by corporations are for more effective than anything the government can do.

A government program is not going to cause the clouds to part, the sun to shine, the heavens rejoice, and those who the government considers obese to experience some sort of epiphany and suddenly see the light. Any change in the percentage of obese Virginians is not going to be related to government.

The only context in which the word obese belongs in relation to the government is that, the government itself is obese. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to enjoy a big bowl of ice cream.

The Pork Scorecard

2006-07-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

The Club for Growth has released a tally of how each representative voted on the 19 Flake Amendments. Virginia was a collective 9 for 209. We should be so proud. Only three could muster the courage to vote against any of these important projects. Eric Cantor, Jo Ann Davis, and Tom Davis each voted to not fund three of the projects.

BVBL has a post up too. As he points out, these projects may have some merit, but is it the responsibility of the federal government to fund them? No, it is not the necessary and proper role of government to fund museums, aquariums, dairy education, swimming pools, multipurpose facilities (whatever that means), or other pet projects.

The Virginia Science Museum was one of the targets of the Flake amendments. It received $250,000. The fact that it is near where I live means nothing to me. The federal government should absolutely not be funding science museums across the country. If Richmond wants a science museum it should be self supporting. If they can't convince people in the area to support them the taxpayers across the country should not foot the bill.

I'm especially disappointed in my representative, Congressman Cantor, and Virginia Republicans. I suppose Rep. Cantor is in a difficult spot since he is in a leadership position, but how can fiscal conservatives hold out any hope for real government reform and spending restraint when hydroponic tomato production is somehow considered a priority for the federal government? This fiscal conservative finds it disheartening. And before someone says Democrats are the answer, wake up, they aren't.

Donny Baseball crunched the numbers and he ranks Virginia as the number 2 "RINO Breeding Ground". Virginia Republicans in Congress should be ashamed.

AFP Meeting

2006-07-26T23:16:00.000-04:00

Once again, it's bee a while since I blogged - two weeks - that's not good. My mind is still a "raging torrent" but work has been keeping me busy and I've been lazy. I do have another post in the works that I hope to finish up tomorrow.

Americans for Prosperity held a meeting on Tuesday evening in Goochland. I had hoped to help get a few more people out, but considering it was in Goochland it wasn't too bad, and what we lacked in quantity we more than made up for in quality.

Whitney Duff, the state directory for AFP, talked about what AFP is and some of the legislation they supported (AFP is not just a "no taxes" group, despite what you may hear, they support legislation too) and what they opposed. Of course, a lot of it focused on taxes and how another tax increase is not necessary.

It's easy for people to forget (especially in the summer) that the biennial budget grew by 20%. That is a lot of money. When you are spending billions and billions more dollars than the last budget it is absolutely outrageous to think that there is not money somewhere to pay for the transportation "crises". It's called setting priorities! Not everything can be number one.

One particularly humorous example of how the legislature does not set priorities is that there is $87,000 being spent on the “Virginia Transportation Museum”. Granted, that is not a large sum of money in the grand scheme of things, but it is not the amount of money that matters. It is the principle.

AFP is going to be going on a statewide tour beginning next month. If you are not on their email list you should sign up to stay informed and to learn when they will be in your area. There was much more discussed and I will try to expand on this later, but I would encourage you to try to make it to one of their meetings. I am glad they are keeping the issues front and center at a time when things are typically a little slower.

NRC Seeks Comment on SDEIS for North Anna ESP

2006-07-12T22:27:00.000-04:00

Via the NRC comes the word that there will be another meeting on Tuesday, August 15 for the NRC to obtain public comment regarding the two new proposed reactors at North Anna. These comments are to focus on the recent changes dealing with the increased power level and the revised cooling system.

The ESP (Early Site Permit) process allows an applicant to address site-related issues, such as environmental impacts, for possible future construction and operation of a nuclear power plant at the site. The original North Anna application was filed Sep. 25, 2003, by Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC. If approved, the permit would give Dominion up to 20 years to decide whether to build one or more nuclear plants on the site and to file an application with the NRC for approval to begin construction.

The NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation is that a (ESP) permit should be issued. The staff’s conclusion is based on its independent review of a report submitted by Dominion, taking into account consultations with federal, state, tribal and local agencies. The staff’s preliminary conclusions include a finding that no environmentally preferable or obviously superior sites have been identified, and that any adverse environmental impacts from possible site preparation and preliminary construction activities at North Anna could be redressed.

So this step is just the beginning. The real battle, I believe, would take place over the construction permit, if that is what they still call it. The fortunate thing is that the process has been streamlined and there are two other companies in the same process, Exelon (in Illinois) and Entergy (in Mississippi).

I hope this meeting is as entertaining as the last one. "Miss Radioactive" showed up, an artist who played some bells that I didn't think would ever end, and some other interesting individuals.

I hope Dominion decides to build new nuke plants. It has been a long time, too long, since the last one. Nuclear power is clean, reliable, and safe. It is time (as I have seen on a t-shirt, not one I own) to: REJECT GREEN PROPAGANDA - NUCLEAR POWER NOW.

I do have a shirt that says "Another Environmentalist for Nuclear Energy". I wish I would have had it in college for a botany professor.....

Are there any unmarked ears left?

2006-07-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

*Fixed the link to the LoC site.

One of my favorite topics is earmarks. Found this definition here.

Earmarks - For centuries, farmers have marked their livestock as their property by cutting distinctive notches in the animal's ears. Earmark in this literal sense first appeared in English around 1591, but the use of earmark in the figurative sense 'to designate' arose only in the late 19th century.

Norm discusses this morning the 1,700 earmarks that have been added to the Health and Human Services appropriations bill. After reading the article he referenced I thought I would try to find the entire list of 1,700. Thanks to Jon, I did, the "list" is here.

Here is the complete list of earmarks headed to Virginia. Certainly some worthy causes, but the role of the federal government? I don't think so.

City of Alexandria, VA, for an automobile industry workforce development and training initiative	275,000
Patrick County Education Foundation, Stuart, VA, for a workforce development project	100,000
Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA for the Residential Construction Academy	300,000
Southside Virginia Community College, Alberta, VA for the Heavy Equipment Training Center project	300,000
United Mine Workers of America, Fairfax, VA, for the UMWA Career Center's mine worker training and reemployment programs	1,000,000
Autism Center of Virginia, Richmond, VA for equipment	275,000
Blue Ridge Health System, Inc., Arrington, VA for telehealth services	75,000
Carilion Health System, Roanoke, VA for equipment for the Smart Operating Room	300,000
Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg, VA for dental hygienist development	250,000
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters Health System, Norfolk, VA for a pediatric outpatient mobile MRI unit located in Chesapeake, VA	100,000
Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters Health System, Norfolk, VA for facilities equipment in the Princess Anne Pediatric Medical Office Building in Virginia Beach	1,000,000
Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck, Kilmarnock, VA for equipment	150,000
Halifax Regional Health System, South Boston, VA for an information technology upgrade	300,000
INOVA Health System, Falls Church, VA for facilities and equipment for the Claude Moore Health Education Center	250,000
Piedmont Access to Health Services, Danville, VA for an electronic medical records system	100,000
Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA for facilities and equipment for a biotechnology lab	500,000
University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA for a telehealth project related to cancer prevention, education and treatment in Southwest Virginia	200,000
Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Richmond, VA for facilities and equipment	1,000,000
Virginia Dental Health Foundation, Richmond, VA for medical equipment	125,000
Youth For Tomorrow, Bristow, VA for facilities	100,000
Chesterfield County, VA for the Dual Treatment Track program	100,000
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Alexandria, VA for an initiative to increase underserved participation in end-of-life care	350,000
Patient Services Inc., Midlothian, VA for a Medical Insurance and Co-payment Assistance Case Management Program for Chronic Diseases, including Hepatitis C	100,000
Riverside Regional Medical Center, Newport News, VA for the Patient Navigator Program	200,000
Virginia Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Richmond, VA for a program to educate potential recipients regarding the Medicare part D drug benefit	175,000
Beth El House, Alexandria, VA for social services and transitional housing for formerly homeless women and their children	75,000
Helping Children Worldwide, Herndon, VA for support programs for low- income students and their families	250,000
Mary's Family, Orlean, VA to develop a respite program for Winchester-area special needs families	100,000
Shelter for Abused Women, Winchester, VA to develop a model for service delivery for domestic violence victims in rural communities.	100,000
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Fairfax, VA for naturally occurring retirement community demonstration project	150,000
Nursing Assistant Institute at the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, Charlottesville, VA for assessment and address of nursing assistant shortages in long-term care settings	100,000
Shenandoah Area Agency of Aging, Front Royal, VA for a model group respite center for persons with Alzheimer's disease or dementia	150,000
Northern Virginia Family Services, Oakton, VA to develop a network of local pediatricians providing affordable health care to the working poor in Loudoun County, VA	100,000
St. Luke Free Community Clinic, Front Royal, VA to coordinate a seven-county effort to address adult hypertension and inadequate dental care for the uninsured	350,000
An Achievable Dream, Inc., Newport News, VA, for education and support services for at-risk children, which may include teacher stipend scholarships	550,000
Best Buddies Virginia, McLean, VA, for mentoring programs for persons with intellectual disabilities	250,000
Chesterfield County, VA for assistive technology for special needs students	150,000
Fairfax County Park Authority, Fairfax, VA to develop a handicapped- accessible playground	100,000
Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, VA for an innovative Chinese, Arabic and Korean language program in Fairfax and Clarke County schools	300,000
Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, VA for the Emergency Medical Services Academy	150,000
Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, Danville, VA for the Boosting Student Achievement for Competitiveness program	100,000
Institute for Student Achievement, Lake Success, NY for an education enhancement program at Annandale High School, Annandale, VA	100,000
Virginia Aquarium, Virginia Beach, VA for educational programs	300,000
Way of a Champion, Chesapeake, VA to expand the after-school program for at-risk children to three other areas	300,000
Wolf Trap Foundation, Vienna, VA for the Performing Arts in Vienna, VA to develop early childhood education programs	200,000
Radford University, Radford, VA, for a study of the feasibility of establishing a graduate program in optometry and/or dentistry	250,000
University of Virginia Center for Politics, Charlottesville, VA for the Youth Leadership Initiative	1,025,000
Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA for the homeland security scholars program	150,000
Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA to establish a program in diplomacy and international economics	300,000
Children's Museums of Portsmouth Virginia, Portsmouth, VA, for exhibits and education programs	75,000
Virginia War Memorial Educational Foundation, Inc., Richmond, VA for four educational materials segments	200,000
TOTAL	13,500,000

TMG Recap

2006-07-11T21:53:00.000-04:00

After missing the last two Tuesday Morning Group Meetings, I finally made it back to one today, albeit a few minutes late. Rick was there and Norm showed up too.

The first topic that came up (even though I have seen him numerous times I can't remember the name of the man speaking) was HJ 56 - the Constitutional amendment dealing with the assessments of real property and tax rates (similar from my understanding to CA Prop 13). Although it was continued to next year it sounds like it has some support, not too surprisingly, in the House. The Senate, I imagine, would be a different story.

Not long ago I was talking to a guy from California about property taxes and I asked him what he thought of Prop 13. I assumed that he would like it. Wrong. He doesn't like the system in CA because "it's not fair" - of course, he did not say what a fair system (in his eyes) would be. An acquisition based tax rate seems far fairer to me than the current system.

A valid question was asked about how easy this would be to get passed as it appears the housing market is slowing. The answer was that instead of skyrocketing assessments we will now see ever increasing rates. There is no way local government is going to slow their appetite for tax dollars. History has shown us that.

The next speaker talked about Virginia State University and the corruption of the administration. Apparently there are multiple cases in court (costing the taxpayers millions of $) due to what appears to be a pattern of questionable behavior.

Up next was a speaker from the College Republican National Committee. It sounds like they are working hard to further the Republican cause. Something I never did in college was join the CRs. It's not that I didn't want to, but I was working a lot.

Up next was Peyton Knight of the Nationl Center for Public Policy Research. He discussed H.R.5195. It's a bill being sponsored by Rep Frank Wolf and cosponsored by many of the Virginia Representatives. The list of VA cosponsors is below:

Rep Boucher, Rick [VA-9] - 4/25/2006
Rep Cantor, Eric [VA-7] - 5/24/2006
Rep Davis, Jo Ann [VA-1] - 4/25/2006
Rep Forbes, J. Randy [VA-4] - 5/24/2006
Rep Davis, Tom [VA-11] - 4/25/2006
Rep Goode, Virgil H., Jr. [VA-5] - 4/25/2006
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 5/24/2006
Rep Scott, Robert C. [VA-3] - 4/25/2006

On the Senate side it is sponsored by Sen. Allen (S.2645) and also cosponsored by Sen. Warner.

On the surface this bill sounds nice. It "establishes the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area." Has a nice ring to it, I suppose. Not so fast my friends, there are many concerns about this bill as it pertains to property rights. Check out this article by Mr. Knight to learn more about the concerns.

I am sure there are those who would claim those who are concerned are being paranoid or overreacting, but read the article and ask yourself if you really think this is an issue for the federal government. The answer for me is that it is absolutely not an issue for the feds. In addition, anytime the feds setup a "management entity" your internal alarm should begin sounding. If it doesn't you may need to visit a doctor.

The final speaker was Chris Shores from Virginians for a Conservative State Senate (VCSS). I'm looking for big things from this group. They certainly have their work cut out for them, but something needs to change in the senate. The constant "raise taxes" answer to every question asked needs to end.

Now that I think about it I'm not sure I've got everyone in the correct order. In typical fashion my notes are terrible and my memory isn't much better. Oh well, you get what you pay for from this blogger.

10th Senate Rumor Mill

2006-07-10T21:29:00.000-04:00

I am sure most of you have seen the post over at NLS about the rumored primary challenger to Senator John Watkins. To the best of my knowledge David Johnson is going to run against Watkins although, of course, there has been no official word.

Many of the comments at NLS focused on AG McDonnell and insinuated that he was somehow orchestrating this effort by Mr. Johnson. Not true and, quite frankly, laughable to suggest. As Lord Botetourt pointed out, Johnson has been very active in politics for quite some time.

Additionally, AG McDonnell is no puppet master of those who work in his office and Mr. Johnson is no puppet. There may very well be a reason why there has been no official word and rather than speculate perhpaps we should have a bit of patience.

Along with many others in the 10th Senate District, I am hopeful that Mr. Johnson does decide to run. Although I have only briefly met him I know him to be an incredibly smart, well spoken, principled conservative - the kind of person we in the 10th deserve.

Sen. Watkins has always been nice to me personally, but I cannot support a man who has his type of desire to see government grow and taxes raised (among other things). As soon as the word is official I will be volunteering my time and efforts to help David Johnson become Senator David Johnson.

The World Cup

2006-07-08T18:39:00.000-04:00

I guess tomorrow the World Cup ends with the title game between Italy and France. I suppose I'll root for Italy. I like Italian food and .

When it comes to soccer I am not much of a fan. Perhaps I lack patience, but when a game can end with only 10-15 scoring opportunities it leaves a little to be desired. To me it would be like watching a baseball game where each team can only swing the bat once per inning and a tie would be settled by a home run derby. Or if you made a hockey rink twice the size and there were very few substitutions.

Fortunately the dreaded time of the year without football (REAL football) is nearing the end. Only 29 more days until preseason football starts.

Who is the guy in the tie?

2006-07-06T15:38:00.000-04:00

Ok, what did the Sorensen Institute do with Norm and who is the guy wearing the tie?

Yes Virginia, We Love Pork

2006-06-25T20:36:00.000-04:00

As Norm mentioned last week Virginia members of the House could not muster the courage to vote for the Flake amendments. Not all of those on Congressman Flake's site were voted on, but five were and Virginia was a collective 0 for 55. Good work, give yourselves a pat on the back!

Why, there is nothing more important in a Defense Appropriations bill than funding an aquarium. Or a "Wind Demonstration Project". Anyone that wishes to see a wind demonstration need only step inside the US Capitol, or for that matter, any location with a large gathering of politicians.

Read Norm's post for a bit of info on each of these projects. And the five amendments that received votes can be found on the Club for Growth blog.

For every $3 million in pork our Representatives should call or visit every man, woman, and child in their district and ask them for a penny. I imagine it would be difficult when they explain that they are taking your money and spending it on things that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with the core responsiblities of government and it is being spent in a different state.

There are always the arguments that the definition of pork depends on your perspective. I disagree, I absolutely do not care how much money is "brought home" to Virginia. Pork is pork. If a museum in Richmond needs money the federal government should absolutely not provide it.

The best and worst of sports

2006-06-19T23:29:00.000-04:00

Is there anything better in sports than Stanley Cup playoff hockey? Didn't watch nearly as much this year since it was not on ESPN, but it is the best. In addition to not seeing as many games I did miss Bill Clement and Gary Thorne calling the game. Two of the best.

Congrats to Carolina for winning the Stanley Cup. One small bit of trivia thanks to my friend Ted. Did you know that the CFL Grey Cup is North America's oldest professional league championship trophy?

The worst in sports? Aluminum bats in college baseball. I can't stand that "ping" sound. It makes it hard to watch. I don't know the history behind why the NCAA uses metal bats, but I think it is time to make the switch back to wood.

Blog Summit

2006-06-19T08:26:00.000-04:00

Once again, I haven't blogged in what seems like a month of Sundays. Not that I haven't had anything to say.

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.....

I've just been busy - and you can call me Mr. Lamar.

I ended up going to the Sorensen blog summit and I'm glad I did. Met a ton of new people and saw some people I hadn't seen in a while. Let's see if I can remember them all - James Martin from VA Progressive, Virginia Centrist, Brian Patton, Waldo Jaquith, Steve Sisson - The Blue Dog, Romeocat from Cathouse Chat, Bob from Commonwealth Commonsense, Jon Henke from QandO, met Chris from Spank that Donkey in person, and saw Norm, Rick, and Shaun again.

I think that is most of the people I spent any amount of time with. Oh, I did sit at the same table on Friday night (the dinner was excellent) with Del. Brink and Del. Amundson from VA Extra Innings.

It was a little bizarre at first meeting other bloggers, but for the most part when I talked to someone I felt like I had known them for a long time. I think I was most surprised by Virginia Centrist. For some reason I thought he would be an older guy. Of course, I think it was James Martin that said the same about me. It may also have been James that wasn't sure what side of the aisle I sit on until recently. I'm going to have to do a better job of letting people know I am to the right, way to the right.
The first session I went to was with Waldo and Jon about promoting and enhancing your blog. Learned quite a few things - some of them I may even use. No one is a big fan of Blogger, but for me the price is right and I don't blog enough to justify spending much time moving.

The second session, and first on Saturday, was about ethics and blogging. The most interesting topic to me was about anonymous/pseudonymous bloggers. I tend to agree that anonymous comments should be somewhat discouraged; however, it is the message that should be paid attention to and not the messenger. I don’t want to go on about this much, but I don’t think there is an issue with pseudonymous bloggers. If you don’t trust me because you may or may not know my real name I really don’t care. Jaded JD has his thoughts here.

The third and final session was about blogging and journalism. It was an interesting discussion. I don’t consider myself a journalist, but I think there are bloggers out there who should be. The discussion did somewhat inspire me to try to do some original stuff. We’ll see how long that inspiration lasts.

I enjoyed all of the speakers, but I enjoyed AG McDonnell and LG Bolling the most. Bob Holsworth did an excellent job also. Mike Shear did a good job also. Others have more detailed accounts, but Shear thought by the end we might be throwing rotten tomatoes at him. Jerome Armstrong was just ok. He was the least polished public speaker, but I did find it interesting to hear from the far left (just to the left of Pluto as the Blue Dog might say).

All in all it was a good time. I did feel vastly outnumbered, especially on Friday, but Saturday was better with Norm and Shaun there. You know you are surrounded by liberals when you hear about how great LBJ was and when someone refers to the Presidents social security plan as “dismantling” social security. Yes, allowing people to keep the money they earn in their own account would be disastrous. Why, just the thought of allowing to someone to have more control of their own money makes me sick……

McDonnell to hold press conference

2006-06-07T20:01:00.000-04:00

Attorney General Bob McDonnell will be holding a press conference tomorrow regarding the budget situation and the role of the Office of the Attorney General. It should be interesting. I wish I could go.

Regarding the LG Bolling quote:

I agree with the governor; that doesn’t mean I disagree with the attorney general

That may be one people don't forget. I honestly don't know if it was taken out of context at all, but it sounds like he is trying to straddle the fence and that never looks good.

Married to earmarks

2006-06-06T19:34:00.000-04:00

Via AFP comes the news of Congressman Rick Boucher's wedding. The happy couple was married "on a former railroad bridge overlooking Damascus on the Virginia Creeper Trail."

It turns out it is the same trail that the Congressman worked to get $750,000 for (in taxpayer dollars). Isn't that nice? We all helped pay for improvements to his wedding location. Is it really the job of the federal government to fund improvements to a bike path? If tax dollars are going to go to that type of project, should it not at least be state dollars? Or preferably, county or city tax dollars.

Earmarks are out of control. Spending is out of control. The whole stinking government is out of control

In other related news, AFP is launching an Anti-Earmarks TV Ad Campaign. Good. I hope people watch, get disgusted, and call/email/fax their Senators. I will.

Sorensen - to go or not to go?

2006-06-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

That is the question. I know the deadline is fast approaching (at least I think it's tomorrow), but I still haven't made up my mind about whether or not to attend the blog conference. I can't decide if it is worth the $50 or not. I would probably not stay at a hotel since the drive home isn't too far. I suppose it would be worth it just to meet everyone, but to steal a joke from Jay Leno (he used $100 though) - when I was a kid a $50 bill was as rare as a hen's tooth. You know what they call it nowadays? Gas money......

Anyway, I do wish Chad and some of the others could make it. I'd like to talk some Reds baseball with Chad. A three game sweep of the Astros, in Houston no less, has really boosted my morale. At least Norm will be there, and talking to Norm alone is worth the price of admission. We'll see. I still have a few more hours to think it over.

Another good Jay Leno joke - Kenny Rogers blinked the other day......and pulled a groin muscle.

Memorial Day VBC

2006-05-31T23:11:00.000-04:00

You should have already done so, but if you haven't, you need to get over to Spank that Donkey (what a great name) and check out the Memorial Day VBC (Part I and Part II).

Haven't blogged in an eternity

2006-05-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

At least it feels that way. Work has been busy, have been working outside a lot, and we were in Ohio over the weekend. At least 99% of our landscaping is done now and there are no trips to Ohio in the near future.

We went to Ohio over the weekend because my wife's sister graduated high school. One interesting thing. The class had 147 people. There were 13 (THIRTEEN!) valedictorians and 3 (THREE!) salutatorians. Hmmm. Sounds like they pass out A's at that high school like my zoology teacher in HS passed out insults. There was a test that I got the best grade in the class on. He said it was like a paraplegic winning a marathon. Ouch.

Anyway, the thought of splitting the "honor" of valedictorian 13 ways is absurd. I imagine picking one (or perhaps making the courses more difficult) would not be an option. Someone might get their feelings hurt.

Free Beer

2006-05-19T16:11:00.000-04:00

Two times this week (Monday or Tuesday and again today) during lunch I went to a nearby Food Lion to grab a few things. Both times there was a couple in front of me that paid for their groceries with food stamps. After paying for their groceries with the food stamps they then wrote a check for a case of beer. They can afford two cases of beer within five days, but they are having their groceries paid for by the taxpayers.

Drink up y'all, it's on the taxpayers this week. Priorities? Who needs 'em. Pride? Throw it out the window. After all, who needs pride when you can get your beer subsidized.

Tim Kaine - American Idol

2006-05-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

My wife and I worked outside until after 9 this evening and when we came in we turned on the tv and flipped around until we got to American Idol. They were showing Elliot Yamin in Richmond and none other than our Governor, Tim Kaine, was shown with Elliot. Unfortunately, Elliot's mom voted for Kaine, but I won't hold that against Elliot. I would have preferred to see Elliot or his mom scold the Governor for wanting to raise our taxes. That would have made for much better television.

Are toothpicks next?

2006-05-17T16:57:00.000-04:00

Via the Tax Foundation comes the news that China has put a tax on chopsticks. It should be interesting to see what happens to the chopstick market in Japan. As the post from the Tax Foundation notes, we could see more forks in Japan.

Environmentalists are happy with the tax as it is aimed at slowing deforestation in China. Are there better ways to encourage preservation of forests than slapping a tax on something? I suppose they could give tax credits for not cutting the trees. Or they could outlaw chopsticks all together (but then only outlaws would have chopsticks). Or is it the business of the government what a private business does with its land? What's the answer?

Taxes as a percentage of GSP

2006-05-17T09:52:00.000-04:00

Something I have been meaning to blog about for a while is the argument that Virginia is a low tax state based on the taxes as a percentage of income or the gross state product (GSP). About a month ago Jim Bacon posted about Tax Freedom Day and he discussed the same topic. What Jim said bears repeating:

When ranked by total dollars exacted, Virginia has become a high-tax state. The Axis of Taxes points out, with some legitimacy, that Virginia is a moderate/low-tax state when ranked by taxes as a percentage of income. In other words, because Virginians have higher-than-average incomes, the tax burden isn't as heavy.

I don't find that riposte particularly consoling. The harder I work to make more money, I can be assured that my state and local governments will be soaking up their "fair share" of my income. I'd prefer to see state/local governments that committed themselves with unremitting zeal to boosting productivity, re-engineering processes and re-imagining services to meet core needs more cost effectively. That's something we did for two years of the Warner administration while the state was in financial "crisis." Now we've reverted to a multi-year phase of aggressive expansion -- which will last as long as the current economic expansion does.

I agree 100% with Jim. If Virginians make more money than another state, should it cost more to run government? Are there additional "core" services the government needs to provide when the taxpayers are more well off? Or are they spending for the sake of spending - building schools that look like the Taj Mahal, taking trips to Hawaii, spending, spending, and spending?

They are spending for the sake of spending. Whether it is a state politician telling me how low taxed we are in relation to the GSP or Karl Rove telling me spending is lower in comparision to the GDP, I don't care. You can tell me until you are blue in the face. The bottom line is the total amount of money spent, regardless of how much the people make or produce.

Suppose I made $1,000,000 a year. There is nothing that requires me to buy a big house, fancy car, and nice clothes. I could very well live in a shack if I wanted. I could drive a 15 year old car (look at the IKEA founder). Government should live in a shack. Government should drive a 15 year old car. Government should be frugal.

Do Blues Records Exist Only in Public Libraries?

2006-05-16T16:38:00.000-04:00

I suppose I should have posted this on Jan. 1, but I hadn't listened to the Blues Brothers in a while. In the Opening: I Can't Turn You Loose of Blues Brothers - The Definitive Collection Akroyd says the blues will only exist in the classical records department of the local public library in 2006. Was he right? Any good, new blues out there? Not that the Blues Brothers were ever great blues artists, but they are kind of fun to listen to. And the movie is a classic.

Virginia Blog Carnival

2006-05-15T07:57:00.000-04:00

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the latest edition of the Virginia Blog Carnival. I apologize for getting this up a little late. I was on my way into work early this morning to finish this up before the work day, but a lady in front of me spun out, went across the road, and into a ditch. Fortunately she was ok, but I waited until someone came to help get her car out until I left.

This week’s carnival is a good one. Probably the best ever, no, wait, definitely the best ever. Well, maybe not, but it is another excellent showing by the Virginia Blogosphere. Some blogs, I admit, were new to me, but that is what makes this so great.

Our first entry comes from MaxPower at Haduken and is titled How Patchwork Collective can save Richmond. It is an excellent article talking about Patchwork Collective and what they are doing to bring the arts (music) downtown.

Right here, in our city, is a group innovating, changing, and growing the local music scene. You don’t need a performance hall to hear stunning music in Richmond — it already exists and you are missing it. You don’t need to move to New York, or even go there, to see superior musicians preform live — it’s happening here. In the last year PC has hosted a famously talented clarinet soloist, a ten piece brass band, a twelve piece chamber orchestra, and a world renowned jazz musician. Exactly the type of things the Mayor’s Performing Arts Committee would love (and you would love too, I promise). The Committee’s suggestions will cost you $45 million while PC’s splendid offerings will cost you 5$. Your call though …

Read the whole post, you won't be disappointed. Another post from Haduken I found very interesting was about Garbage Pail Kids. Remember those? I never even knew they had a movie, but I did have some of the cards, much to parents dismay. Looking back, I'm not sure how I ever got those things. Maybe my parents didn't pay much attention to them, who knows.

Up next from Lynchburg is corndog whose blog is Corndog's Flex-fuel Chevy News. Corndog's post is THE BRAZILIAN MODEL-WHAT IT DOESN'T TEACH US. It's an excellent post. It talks about why we cannot do things the way the Brazilians have done it.

I'm SO in favor of persuing renewable fuels, as you can probably tell, but we have to do it differently than Brazil did, and we should realize this and quit lying to people by presenting the Brazilian model as something we could emulate. We have to do so much more to accomplish what Brazil has done, but that doesn't mean we can't do it. We are going to have to rely on hybrids, flex-fuelers, ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, corn, switchgrass, orange peels, soybeans, bio-engineered enzymes, bio-conversion, syngas methodology, and technologies which haven't even been invented yet, to get to where we have to go.

Up next is Charlottesville's Bob Gibson from the Daily Progress with another top notch post titled How helpful is bipartisanship? Former Del. Paul Harris (who I happen to like a lot) is mentioned in the story as promoting more bipartisan discussion. Of course, as Mr. Gibsion mentions, he has his eyes on a statewide office and when trying to appeal to a large audience I suppose it is what one should say.

Next on our stop is Rocinante's Burdens. Roci gives us An Agenda for the Next Election Cycle. I wish politicians would listen to Roci. Here is the list of what is important to America:

1. Finish the war against terrorists.
2. The national budget must come under control.
3. Immigration. Fix it. Stop jerking us around.
4. Energy policy. Supply and demand. It is a reality. Embrace it.

Outstanding list. Number 2 is my personal favorite.

Our next stop takes us to Extra Innings, the blog of Delegates Bob Brink and Kris Amundson. Before I go any further I would like to thank the Delegates for blogging. We are on different sides of the political aisle, but I have a great deal of respect for them both for entering the blogging world and trying to get their message out.

Delegate Brink has a post this week titled WWTDD? I would tell you what it stands for, but you should read it and find out for yourself.

Our next entry comes from Spank That Donkey. Chris submits a post this week titled First President - First Female President. Good reading. Something I have yet to do is visit Mount Vernon. I should be ashamed.

Another excellent post from Spank That Donkey is National Police Week 2006. Make sure you read that too.

Another Charlottesville blogger, Rick Sincere from Rick Sincere News & Thoughts brings us his recap of the Kennedy Center Spring Gala. Good work Rick! Angela Lansbury was the Honrary Chair of the festivities. As an aside, my uncle went to high school with a guy (I don't know him) who did the music for Murder She Wrote.

From Pittsylvania County RomeoCat brings us Weekly walks with Uncle Charles. Some very nice pictures included, despite the fact that Kat's camera is on its last leg. Uncle Charles reminds me a lot my great Uncle Henry. He was a pastor at a church and loved teaching about the bible.

Alton, in Collinsville, from I'm Not Emeril is up next. Alton had quite a scare and tells us But I Really Like Eggs! I love eggs too, but I usually only eat the whites. I hope he is able to get eggs back in his diet. If I had to give them up completely I would be "deeply saddened."

Fortunately Alton went to the hospital right away. It should prove as a reminder that ignoring health scares is foolish. And if you haven't had a phsyical or your cholesterol checked lately, what are you waiting for? Get on the phone and make an appointment.

Adam from Creative Destruction has a post up titled Gay Marriage; or We Are all Traditionalists. Certainly a tough topic to discuss and one that all voters in Virginia will be deciding on in November.

Our next entry is from Kilo at Spark It Up!!!. Kilo talks about his Family Cemetery. Good for Kilo and his father for taking care of the resting place of his family. Kilo wonders who will take care of the place when his time has come. It always makes me a little sad when I see an overgrown cemetery.

This isn't something I usually talk about, but I really like the idea of a family cemetery. There is something comforting about knowing you will be resting next to your loved ones.

This week's final entry comes from One Wise Girl at Spark It Up!!!. We end this week with something that makes my mouth water - Baked Ziti with Sausage and Veggies. That sounds really, really good. Although I think I would side with OWG and go with hamburger. I can almost taste it now. I will be making this soon.

Thanks to everyone for submitting. I had hoped to round up some other posts from the past week, but due to time constraints it didn't happen. Sorry for getting this up so late. Have a great week y'all!

****UPDATE****
For some reason I received an email today that was sent on Friday from Riley, Not O'Reilly of Virginia Virtucon. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Riley. Riley has good stuff this week, as usual. Riley recalls hearing Paul Harvey talk about World War III.

On that day, he was talking about terrorism and he stated, without a doubt in his voice, that if we were not already that we would soon be in a global war against terrorists.

The most amazing part is that this was in 1988.

Next installment of the VBC

2006-05-11T19:54:00.000-04:00

I am fortunate enough to be hosting the Virginia Blog Carnival next Monday. Please send me your submissions or risk having me pick one for you.

If you’d like to make a submission, send it to nickfinity[at]yahoo[dot]com by Sunday, May 14th, at 8:00 p.m. ET (but earlier if possible!).

1. Identify one of your posts that you’d like to publicize.

2. Include the following information:

* Name of your Blog
* URL to your blog
* Your name (or the name you blog under)
* Where in Virginia you live
* The title of your post
* Permalink to your post
* Trackback to your post (optional)
* Brief summary of your post (also optional)

3. Make sure the subject line clearly identifies your submission as related to VBC.

Come on people, let's get those submissions coming!

Bonjour!

2006-05-11T19:23:00.000-04:00

I have not blogged recently due, mostly, to being in Montreal. I was there for a conference where most of the attendees are government employees from around the US and Canada. And despite the fact that there are those who would call me a xenophobe for wanting our immigration laws enforced I was not fearful at all.

Xenophobe - A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

In fact, the only thing that I was fearful of was the driving downtown. The only city where I have heard more horn honking is NYC.

My wife and I flew into Burlington, VT and drove to Montreal. It was interesting once we crossed the border the English signs stopped. We did not stop until we got to our hotel and everyone there seemed to speak both English and French. Our rental car only had MPH and, of course, Canada has KPH. I think for the most part we stayed around the speed limit.

The big shocker was when my wife bought a coat (it can be cold up there this time of year). Two taxes - one 7% and the other 7.5%. As the saying goes - if you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it's free.

A few other interesting things. At the conference everyone had name tags that had where they were from. Originally being from Ohio I would comment to someone from there that that is where I grew up. One guy started going off on Ken Blackwell and the "ultra conservatives." He says if Blackwell is elected and gets his proposals passed they will destroy local government.

From what I understand Blackwell wants to make it very difficult for local governments to raise taxes and limit their expenditure growth to 3.5%. Sounds ok to me. One of the arguments the guy made was that if a pristine piece of land became available the city would not be able to buy it. Huh? Why would a city need to buy it? Of course, I was not going to argue with the guy as he could be a potential client, but he did not realize at all that I was one of the "ultra conservatives" he was bashing.

Another lady from Colorado went off on TABOR. It is amazing to me that these government employees really think they are entitled to our money. Unfortunately it goes beyond that, not only are they entitled to our money, but it should be at their discretion how much we give them. By golly, if they need money we should provide it. Why, there might be land the government should buy. Or a bridge or railroad to no where. Or some other legitimate need of the government. The government says jump and the taxpayers should say "how high?" Disgusting.

Property Rights Conference Call

2006-05-04T22:23:00.000-04:00

I was fortunate enough to be on the call last week with Joe Waldo - the prominent property rights attorney, Norm, and I am not exactly sure who else. Mr. Waldo did an excellent job of covering property rights and many instances of property owners being taken advantage of by VDOT or local government, some of which are on the "Top 10" list. I encourage everyone to take a look at the list and read a little further into some of the cases.

The point was made that it is a lot harder to get people mobilized in a fight like this because a relatively small number of people actually have their property taken. Perhaps I was as guilty as the next guy, but no more, it is no excuse. Read the stories of people having their businesses or homes taken. Think about the people battling the government and what an uphill battle it must be. And I can only imagine the arrogance of the government officials who think it is the proper thing to do. Property rights are at the very core of what makes our country great. And if you think you are safe in Virginia, think again. The Institute for Justice has ranked Virginia in the top 10 when it comes to eminent domain abuse.

It honestly blows my mind that there was not a bill passed this year to help protect property owners. I believe, like many others, that no bill was better than a bad (Senate) bill, but it amazes me that there are elected officials that believe government should be able to take private property for the purpose of creating jobs, increasing tax revenue, or some other load of garbage.

From my understanding the Senate bill would not have allowed land to be taken for the purpose of increasing tax revenue. However, it would have allowed property to be taken for job creation. Talk about setting up a law to be sidestepped. I can hear government now - "Oh no, we're not taking your land for tax revenue, we're taking it for job creation."

A few other interesting points. Sen. Stolle should have recused himself from this discussion. Outside of the legislature the law firm at which he works (including himself, from what I understand) represents clients who take land from property owners. I guess that would be local government or government agencies, I am not exactly sure. A slight conflict of interest, don't you think?

Something else that was brought up that I have been meaning to post about for a while is that fact that there are government agencies, VDOT is the one I always hear about, who have people on their staff (whose salaries are paid by you and me, the taxpayers) who lobby the General Assembly for more money. Norm also mentions this. So, basically, we are paying people to try to convince the GA to take more of our money.

During the property rights debate there were roughly 60 lobbyist (most, if not all, from government) for allowing government to take private property. There was 1 on behalf of the property owners. Not very good numbers. Shows how important it is to contact our legislators so they hear both sides of the story and are not too heavily influenced by lobbyist. Of those 60 government lobbyist many were from local government, Fairfax, etc.

Property rights will come again next year and it is important that we get a bill passed that really protects property owners and does not simply pay lip service to the idea. There should be no excuses from our legislators.

RIP Louis Rukeyser

2006-05-04T10:22:00.000-04:00

In the event you had not already heard, Louis Rukeyser passed away after a battle with a rare bone marrow cancer on Tuesday. I did not start watching Lou until 2001, but I thoroughly enjoyed his show. His dry sense of humor and wit were always something to look forward to. When he was out the show was barely worth watching, not that the guest was any less knowledgeable, but Rukeyser made the show great.

As a bit of trivia, there is a scene in the movie "Uncle Buck" where "Wall $treet Week" is on in the background.

Rest in peace Mr. Rukeyser, you will be missed.

Live blog with Delegate Saxman.........and 24

2006-05-02T22:38:00.000-04:00

In the event you missed it Delegate Saxman live blogged over at Too Conservative earlier today (he actually started last night). He did an excellent job and you should go read what he has to say. Comment #7 was certainly one of the best comments. I am obviously biased, but I really wish more elected officials would take the time to reach out to bloggers. Kudos to you Delegate!

Yesterday evening Delegate Saxman took a break to watch 24. I know there are many out there who love 24. I had never watched it until last season (last season had the nuclear meltdown, right?). Based on the recommendations of others my wife and I decided to watch it. I enjoy a far fetched plot as much as the next guy, but 24 takes it a little too far.

What initially pushed me over the edge was the idea that a nuclear power plant could be controlled remotely. My uncle happened to see an episode where that was being discussed. He is/was (do they expire? I'm not sure) a licensed nuke plant operator and spent 20 years doing work in the nuclear power business, including running various plants. He did not finish the episode.

I am a fan of nuclear power. As I enjoy wearing t-shirts with a message I have one that says "Another environmentalist for nuclear power." I have also seen one that says "REJECT GREEN PROPOGANDA - NUCLEAR POWER NOW."

One other thing I recall is a scene in the desert. Two cars are driving away with a helicopter overhead. One car gets taken out. What happened to the other one? Were they able to outrun a helicopter? It seems like a bit of a stretch that they are in the middle of the desert and a car gets away from a helicopter.

My wife and I did finish watching the season and Jack Bauer is a bad man (but my money is still on Chuck Norris), but I wish it were slightly more realistic. It is definitely suspenseful and keeps the viewer interested, but when it was over I was always left shaking my head and wondering why I spent an hour of my life watching it. Of course, the same goes for most of what is on tv.

Egg Producers Must Be Investigated

2006-04-27T20:42:00.000-04:00

Yes, you heard me. I want a full and complete investigation from the top of those big egg companies all the way down to each and every chicken in the coop.

As someone who eats a lot of eggs (well, mostly egg whites, but I pay for the whole darn thing) I notice the change in the price of eggs, particularly at Costco. Not more than a few weeks apart there was a roughly 50% increase in the price. Ninety eggs went from around $5 to almost $7.50. It must surely be greed. Market forces have nothing to do with it. Supply and demand - forget about it. Someone is making money, and by golly, I don't like it, no sir, not one bit.

What we need to do, and fast, is tax those greedy, evil companies. They'll rue the day they ever made a dollar. They'll never know what hit 'em. Haha.

Think I have gone off the deep end? So have those yelling about oil companies and their "excessive profits." Increasing the cost of business on an oil company by raising taxes will not bring down the cost of oil. What real purpose would increasing the amount of money in the government coffers and taking it out of private industry serve? It does not serve any purpose, other than to those who like to hear themselves talk.

My Thoughts on Onions

2006-04-26T10:50:00.000-04:00

I obviously have not blogged much lately. I had wanted to get back on track over the weekend, but an important demo for work took care of those plans, along with my plans to get some work outside done. As a guy I used to work with might say - I need to cut the grass something fierce.

While checking Bloglines the other day I noticed over at I'm Not Emeril a post that at first glance, for some reason, I thought was titled "My Thoughts on Onions." I suppose it would not be too far fetched since he is the VA blogosphere chef, but it turns out it was "My Thoughts on Unions."

Unions, one of my favorite subjects. As I posted on a while ago the union employees of AK Steel in Middletown, OH (where I grew up) are locked out and have been for over 50 days now. Maybe I am just cold hearted, but if I were running the company those guys would be lucky to ever set foot inside that steel mill again.

It reminds me of a project I had in college. The class was split into teams of three and our group had to negotiate with another on a union contract. Fortunately my group was the company side. And fortunately the other two in my group had the same feelings as I do regarding unions. At the end we reached an agreement and it was by far the best deal for the company in the class.

Something else from that class I will never forget is two union members coming in to speak to the class. They touted social security and public education as two products of unions. Two things that need serious reform (or abolishment). And I am not sure I believe unions are the reason for SS and public education. Maybe that is what "Mr. Hoffa" (as they called him) told them.

I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago who still lives in Ohio and whose dad works at AK. He made a comment like "big business a-holes." I don't think he knows my politics and I decided it best at the moment to not go off on a rant. I do not think it would do any good. Maybe next time.

Anyway, back to onions. I like them when they are cooked, but not raw. There is nothing worse than biting into a piece of raw onion. And I have yet to meet a person who gets a bean burrito from Taco Bell with the onions. Do you?

Shad Planking

2006-04-20T09:22:00.000-04:00

I made it to my first Shad Planking yesterday. Not a bad event. It would have been better if it had not been the veto session, but Senator Allen, AG Bob McDonnell, John Hager, Tom Davis, Randy Forbes, Steve Baril, Gil Davis, Jerry Kilgore, Harris Miller, James Webb, and probably others were all there.

Vince from Too Conservative was there and has a recap. It was good to see him again. Kenton Ngo and Ben Tribbett were also there also, but unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to meet them. Old Zach from SST was also there. The blogging community lost one of the best when he hung up his keyboard.

As others have mentioned Harris Miller's presence was next to non-existent. There were tons of Allen and Webb signs. Webb had far more little signs, but Allen outdid him when it came to the 4x8s. And Allen had the most supporters at the event by far. There were tons of Allen shirts, hats, and stickers.

One interesting thing is that there were one or two groups from outside Virginia passing out information regarding Sen. Allen. One flyer dealt with the 2nd Amendment. I should have picked one up, but from what I heard it talked about how he is not pro-gun, or maybe pro-gun enough. At least one of the people handing out that flyer was from Pennsylvania.

The flyer I picked up was from a group called "Rescue the Perishing" from Ocheyedan, Iowa. It is interesting that groups from outside Virginia felt compelled to come to the Shad Planking to tell us that Sen. Allen is not pro-life enough or pro-gun enough. They were not supporting Webb or Miller and the heading of the flyer said "Is George Allen the Presidential candidate you are planning to support?" To be out this early they must be concerned. I should have asked who they will support for President in 2008.

McDonnell was the keynote speaker and did an excellent job. Chad has a post up of some of his better quotes. A complete list is up at Bacon's Rebellion.

As everyone told me, the fish was not very good. Now I understand why it is used for bait. It was a good time and something I will do again, but next time I might stop and eat at the Virginia Diner before the event.

Cantor Advisory Council meeting

2006-04-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

Made it to the Cantor Advisory Council meeting last night. It was very well attended. The Congressman did an excellent job covering a lot of topics. He talked about health insurance (focusing some on HSAs), immigration, the war on terror, energy, and taxes.

He took very strong stances on all the issues. It was good to hear. I just wish there were more Republicans out there saying the same things. The hottest topic was illegal immigration. There were many questions on the subject.

The best statement was regarding taxes. Cantor said we should work to ensure that no American family pays more than 20% of their income in taxes. As much as I would like to see it, I have my doubts. Until those in Washington can control their spending we will never see that type of tax rate. I wonder what percentage of people actually pay more than 20% in taxes now. Seeing as how nearly 50% of people pay no federal taxes at all I doubt it is a very high number.

There was also the usual Fair Tax question. The Congressman does not at the moment support the Fair Tax. He certainly believes we need reform, but he is not convinced the Fair Tax is the answer. The 16th Amendment must be repealed before he will support the Fair Tax. As I stated last week, I tend to agree. Given the chance politicians will tax income, sales, and everything in between.

He also mentioned 527s and briefly mentioned the bill (HR 513) that was recently passed dealing with 527s. Many conservative groups have come out against this bill. Norm talked about it yesterday. The Congressman voted for the bill. I wanted to ask during the formal q&a about the bill, but did not get the chance so I asked him afterwards. He thinks it will even the playing field and make the big money guys, like Soros, play by the rules that the small guys have to play by. I disagree.

Only 18 Republicans voted against the bill so it appears I am among the minority, but I think it is another slide down the slippery slope. Quite frankly, if I have $1 billion and I want to tell the world I believe a politician is a fool, I should be allowed. I think the Congressman agrees, but, quite frankly, doing away with all the campaign laws is not a realistic option at this time. However, I do not think adding more layers of government is the best way to get to less government, but maybe that is just me.

Despite the one area of disagreement, I still believe Congressman Cantor is one of the better ones in DC. If all Republicans talked the way Cantor did last night and, more importantly, followed through with action that backed up the talk, I would have "REPUBLICAN" tattooed on my forehead. However, I do not think I will be shopping for a tattoo parlor any time soon.

TMG Meeting

2006-04-14T09:48:00.000-04:00

Albeit a few minutes late, I made it to the TMG meeting on Tuesday. LG Bolling was there and was covering many of the same topics as the conference call. And yes, I was on the call, but when Norm (who was also at the TMG meeting, recap here) called my name I was in the process of fighting off an alien abduction..... or something like that.

I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT.

Really it was cell phone trouble.

I enjoy hearing the LG speak. I have to admit that every time I hear either the LG or AG McDonnell speak I can't help but think of 2009 and hope that it is not a bloodbath.

I also really enjoyed hearing Dan Mitchell from the Heritage Foundation speak. He talked about the Fair Tax and Flat Tax. He likes them both, but he supports the flat tax based on the fact that it is twice as popular with the public as the fair tax.

He also makes the same point as Congressman Cantor when it comes to the fair tax. The 16th Amendment must be repealed and replaced to ensure that that we do not have a sales tax in addition to income tax. I agree.

Unfortunately I think real tax reform is a long ways away. And it is only going to get more difficult as fewer and fewer people pay taxes.

Latest VBC is up at Below the Beltway

2006-04-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

The latest VBC is up at Below the Beltway. Once again, Doug has done an outstanding job. Check it out.

Spent last weekend with my hero

2006-04-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

Did not do any blogging last weekend because my parents and grandparents (dad's parents) were here from Ohio. My (as Grandma spells it) grandad is one of my true heroes. I feel extremely fortunate that three of my four grandparents are still alive. And although my grandpa passed away and could never be replaced, my grandma has since remarried a retired Marine. Three of the finest men I have ever known are my grandfathers.

All three served during WWII. Two Marines and one Army. Up until about six years ago I had no idea about what my grandad, who was here last weekend, had gone through in the service. I knew that he was a Marine during WWII, but not much else. During college an assignment during a history class was to interview someone about a historical event. The teacher was a bit looney, but this turned out to be the best assignment I had in college.

Not knowing who to interview I asked my grandad. I do not think he necessarily wanted to do it, but he, fortunately, said yes. My wife (wife to be at the time), myself, and two others went over to my grandparents house one evening. It turned out that he had not recounted any of his war stories to anyone, including my grandma (at the time they had been married 52 years). I knew he did not like to talk about it, but had I known that he did not talk about it all I would not have asked.

There were a few times when he got choked up, along with everyone else. One of his best buddies was shot and slowly died not more than a few feet from him. He also spoke fondly of a commanding officer who was always in the front, but eventually "got it." He did not go into specifics, but said the Japanese did some awful things. He had a hole shot in his helmet, but did not suffer any injuries. Went three or four days with nothing to eat but a chocolate bar and water from banana leaves.

During his time in the Pacific he was in Guadalcanal, Guam, Bougainville, and I think others. He returned to the States before the end of the war and served as one of the Marines who worked along side the Secret Service and followed FDR. He was at the "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Georgia when the President died.

I have always looked up to my grandparents, but hearing what my grandad went through really cemented in me that he is a hero. Two years ago my wife and I took my parents and grandparents to see the WWII memorial in DC. He was thankful to see it. He said he did not expect anything and figured there would never be anything done for WWII veterans. It is really a shame it took so long and that so many who fought never had the opportunity to see it (including my other grandpa).

My hat goes off to all veterans, but if you, like me, have a grandparent (or parent) who served during WWII, tell them thanks. Sadly, we are losing more heroes everyday and they should know that younger generations appreciate their sacrifice.

Mercury in vaccines

2006-04-08T21:37:00.000-04:00

Shaun has a post up about the uproar regarding mercury in vaccines and the idea that it may cause autism. I have not read much about the mercury in vaccines, but I have done some reading about mercury in fish. To be honest it does not seem like a good idea to have mercury in vaccines (and it has been removed), but I highly doubt some of the claims by the "conspiracy theorists."

One interesting thing from the AJC article Shuan links to is this:

"The loss of public trust in one of the most extraordinary institutions in the world. I'm not quite sure how that has occurred, but it has, and that's one of the unfortunate consequences," Myers said.

I think people do not trust this "extraordinary institution" because it is part of the government.

It is not related to vaccines, but the post by Shaun made me think of getting my mercury tested. My uncle eats a lot of fresh fish - mostly salmon, tuna, and swordfish. It has been about two years ago that he went to get his methylmercury tested. It came back soemwhere around 48 micrograms/liter. I cannot seem to find it now, but I thought anything over 15 was considered high. Although, right now the only thing I can find says that the EPA and National Academy of Sciences recommend keeping the whole blood mercury level < 5.0 microg/L (from an NIH site).

At the time I was eating a fair amount of fresh fish also, not nearly as much as him, and also a can of white albacore tuna a day. So I decided to get mine tested as well. It came back at 19. The doctor suggested I not eat fish for six months. I am not sure where he came up with six months, but that is about what I did. The half life of methylmercury in the blood is roughly 70 days. In the brain it is around 200 days. From what I have read there is no reported cases of methylmercury poisoning from eating fish. The highest recorded test result I have heard of is close to 90 and I believe the person is fine.

I gave up fish for a while, but I am back to eating tuna about three times a week. Most people think I am crazy, but I love a can of albacore tuna with Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce. The chunk light is like cat food. Once you make the change to albacore there is no switching back.

McDonnell conference call

2006-04-05T21:21:00.000-04:00

I decided to join in on the fun earlier and call in to the AG Bob McDonnell conference call. A big thanks to the Attorney General and Tucker Martin for putting this together. I hope there are more of these in the future. I think it is a terrific idea.

Others in "attendance" were Norm from One Man’s Trash, Flora from United Conservatives of Virginia, Vince from Too Conservative, and Not Larry Sabato from, well, Not Larry Sabato.

I asked about why he thought other elected officials were not reaching out to bloggers and local talk radio like he has lately. Outside of Delegate Chris Saxman are there others who blog? And how many send out regular emails about what is happening? I would like to know.

Maybe elected officials do not feel the need to communicate regularly with constituents or give their views on topics. I suppose it all stems from the fact that there are not really many people involved in the political process, or so it seems. Every event that you go to you see the same handful of people. And trying to get people to do work to help out is like pulling teeth.

Anyway, back to the call. Norm had some excellent questions - get that man a job at the RTD. I thought the AG did a good job answering the question about 2009. It was nice that he did not dodge it. The best question though was about meth labs and how it affects the ability to purchase cold medicines. Like Norm, I don't think we should assume cold and allergy sufferers are running meth labs. I wonder what percentage of cold medicine that is sold is used for the production of meth. The inconvenience may be slight, but is it worth it for whatever that percentage is? (Every time I hear about amphetamines I always think of Airplane! - "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines")

Vince from TC also asked an excellent question regarding illegal immigration. I thought the AG did an excellent job answering the question. Check out Vince's recap for more info. It was refreshing to hear him say that we should expect people to obey the laws - including immigration laws. The one area I am not sure about is when it comes to a guest worker program. I admit that I have not read up on it completely, but if we institute a guest worker program what is to stop an employer from still hiring an illegal? Won't they still be cheaper?

Flora asked about the Boy Scouts case. The AG, once again, did a good job answering the question. I believe it is tomorrow that the case will be heard in Chicago. Here is an article about it.

NLS asked about how he and the Governor get along. He said they have been working well together, but that there are basic philosophical differences. The AG did mention the ruling he came out with regarding the non-discrimination order. Outside of that he said they work to find common ground.

All in all the AG did an excellent job. I was very impressed.

Gas tax, sin tax, and too much profit

2006-03-29T22:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was with a group of "Republicans" and I hear how we need to increase the gas tax, tax more "bad" behavior (ie, smoking, drinking, bad driving), and how big oil makes too much money. Whoa, that is when the room started to turn blue and I had to step out and get some fresh air.

The lady who supports increased sin taxes seemed especially supportive of cigarette taxes because smokers, she claims, are more likely to need some type of government health care. I asked her if we should increase the tax on junk food. She kind of laughed and said yes, but I do not think she understood the point I was trying to make. She was also complaining about the amount of money the oil companies make.

I know the GOP tent is supposed to be a big one, but sometimes the differences amaze me. Fortunately I have some more conservative/libertarian leaning friends and many of the bloggers to help me realize I am not alone.

Dodger Stadium

2006-03-28T02:19:00.000-05:00

One of the few things I got to see while I was in LA was the home of (in my best Vin Scully voice) the Dodgers. Despite the fact that I have no desire to go back to LA, it would be fun to see a game there (preferably the Reds). The field and surroundings are incredible. One bad thing is that it was really hazy that day.

Back home again.... and illegal immigration

2006-03-26T15:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry (to the two of you who read the blog) for the light blogging again lately. I was in LA again most of last week. Fortunately that will be the last trip for a while.

I have not been able to follow the news much, but yesterday when I woke up I heard what seemed to be a rally or protest going on. I could hear people talking, cheering, and chanting. Didn't think much of it until we walked from the hotel to near where we were working. Tons of people, police cars, and helicopters. Way more people than I had seen in downtown LA.

We got into the office and one of the guys there asked if we had seen the protest. He told us what it was and then I remembered the bill being discussed. Turns out there were 500,000 people there. Here is an article about it.

The protest was winding down when we went out for a late lunch and there were stacks of "Amnesty Now" (along with many others - all in Spanish that I saw) signs everywhere. There were quite a few people who had US flags, but there were also tons of Mexican flags.

I am no public relations manager, but having a large protest in the US waving the flag of a foreign country and not speaking the primary language is not going to endear many people to your cause. In fact, I did not bring it up at the office, but someone else did, and we all agreed that it seemed rather dumb. If I have a problem with the policies of the Mexican (or any other) government I am not going to go there waving a US flag and speaking English.

I have absolutely no problem with legal immigration. As many of the supporters of amnesty say - we are a nation of immigrants. However, we should absolutely not reward, encourage, or ignore illegal activities and behaviors.

The easiest thing for someone who disagrees with me to say is that I am a racist or xenophobe. Sorry, but that is simply not true. In this case, that is the cry of someone who does not have a valid argument. Quite frankly, I do not care what country an illegal immigrant comes from. If they are here illegally they should be deported. It is as simple as that. Call me cold hearted, but even in this case, the lady should have been (and was) deported. The fact that she has a family here should have no bearing. There should not be exceptions.

As a legal immigrant told me yesterday - "there is no right to live in the US." He went on to say exactly what I think, illegal behavior should not be rewarded. He took the time and proper steps to come to this country the legal way. Others should do the same.

VBC is up

2006-03-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

Something I do not do often enough is link to the Virginia Blog Carnival. I am going to try to get in the habit of putting a link up every week. The latest edition is up over at Spark It Up!!!. Kilo has done a good job of putting it together. Head over and read a few entries.

90 second test

2006-03-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

The April edition of Smart Money has an article about a 90 second test, called the Congnitive Recognition Test (CRT), developed by Shane Frederick of MIT "that seems to predict whether you will be good at things like managing money." I wonder what our legislators would score? That would be interesting.

Anyway, the three questions of the test are:

1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball costs?

2) If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

The highest average score came from tests given at MIT - 2.18. The lowest (at least the lowest shown in the table of results) - University of Toledo - .57. The overall average was 1.24.

There are some interesting results. If you get a minute glance at the PDF. Probably the most interesting thing is that men scored significantly higher on the test (average 1.47 vs 1.03). As Frederick put it "these items measure something that men have more of."

The answers are in white following on the next line. To see them highlight the text.
1) 5 cents 2) five minutes 3) 47 days.

Finally back

2006-03-19T15:25:00.000-05:00

Not that anyone knew (or cared), but I was in Los Angeles most of last week. Defintely glad to be back home in Virginia. I did not have time to do any sight seeing, but there were a few interesting things going on. Across the street from the hotel I stayed they were filming the sequel to Bruce Almighty, which is I believe will be entitled Evan Almighty. The star of the new film is Steve Carell. We did not see any actors, but we did see the World Cable News van and some Atlanta police cars.

Also ate dinner one night at the revolving restaurant in the Westin were parts of True Lies was filmed. I really do not remember the movie much, but the elevator scenes were filmed there. The restaurant was just ok, but the view was pretty cool.

Missed the TMG Meeting

2006-03-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

I know I am a few days late (and more than a few dollars short), but it sounds like I missed a good TMG meeting on Tuesday. Norm has a recap and Rick Sincere does as well. One of the surest ways to tell if I am busy is if I do not make it to the TMG meeting.

Some irrelevant facts and figures

2006-03-12T11:38:00.000-05:00

Not being a native Virginian it has been fun to learn some of the things now that maybe I would have learned if I had grown up here. Do they have a Virginia History class in middle or high school? In Ohio I had an Ohio History class in 8th grade. Of course, Virginia history would probably take at least ten times longer to teach.

I always thought Ohio had a lot of counties (88). It is true that they have more than average (62.8), but Virginia has 134 counties and cities (or as one site put it, county equivalents). That ranks second behind only Texas which has 254.

Is Virginia the only state where all cities are independent? I believe it is, but I am not sure. I suppose it is because we have more independent cities that the average size of a county (or equivalent) in Virginia is the second lowest in the country at roughly 319 square miles each. Rhode Island counties average 309 square miles. The largest, not surprisingly, is Alaska where the average county (borough) is 24,565 square miles, which, is larger than the state of West Virginia.

To find out more about specific cities, counties, and/or states check out FedStats. It is a decent site with facts and figures that, I suppose, would have to come from the census. One interesting piece of info is that that mean travel time to work (in 2000) in Virginia for people 16 and over who do not work at home is 27 minutes. The nationwide average – 25.5 minutes.

Cantor breakfast (Updated)

2006-03-10T10:18:00.001-05:00

Just got back from the Eric Cantor breakfast. I heard three different numbers, anywhere between 1000-1200 people there. Speaker Dennis Hastert was the main speaker. Also there was former Gov. Jim Gilmore, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, AG Bob McDonnell, and a number of senators and delegates. Senators Stosch and Stolle were among the senators in attendance. I wonder what they were thinking when Cantor was talking about keeping taxes low.....

Anyway, I'll post some more about this later, but for now I better get to work.

(Updated)
Just a little more to add. I was able to talk to Delegates Janis and Saxman for a few minutes. They are definitely two of the good guys in the House. Whitney Duff from AFP was also there. Always good to see anyone from AFP. Like Del. Saxman she is a contributor to the Cost Cutting Caucus blog. If you aren't a reader of that blog you should be ashamed.

Speaker Hastert said a few things that illustrate to me how far left Sen. Clinton is. Several years ago he was on a committee to study healthcare with Mrs. Clinton. I do not recall what the specific question he asked her was, but it dealt with why she did not like medical savings accounts (or HSAs). She said one of the problems is that people are greedy. And she feared that people would forgo medical attention for themselves or (you can see this one coming a mile away) their children in order to spend the money on other things. It would be better, she claimed, for the government to control those decisions. She is from the government and she is here to help.

I would consider myself a greedy SOB and I am not ashamed of it. I want to make as absolutely much money as possible. Does that mean I do not have morals or ethics? No. Does it mean I would sacrifice my child's healthcare for a case of beer, a pack of smokes, or maybe a big screen tv? Absolutely not. I want to work as hard as I can doing things legally and ethically to make as much money as I can. And the government should think I am capable of making my own decisions, keep its hands out my pockets, and not penalize or demonize me for being successful.

A good quote (and what is on the back of my CAPITALISTPIG t-shirt), even though it is from a movie (Wall Street):

The point is, ladies and gentlemen: Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed works, greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all its forms, greed for life, money, love, knowledge has marked the upward surge in mankind — and greed, you mark my words — will save not only Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Lee Brothers on the air

2006-03-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

Flora over at UCV mentioned this also, but the Lee Brothers are filling in for Mac Watson today, tomorrow, and Friday. They are much better than Watson. If they were on everyday I would actually listen to WRVA from 3-6. You can listen online at www.1140wrva.com.

Light Blogging

2006-03-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the light blogging recently. Too busy trying to make a buck and get some other non-work related things done.

Just saw that Kirby Puckett passed away, may he rest in peace. I always thought he was a good player and he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who had a great personality.

Via Norm, we see that HB 1052 died. I am not really surprised, but the fact that it did not receive one vote is disturbing.

The latest VBC is up over at I’m Not Emeril. I had meant to submit something, but did not get around to it. I have an idea for a post, but that is about it. Maybe next week.

As I posted about earlier the AK Steel union looked like it was going to strike. The union had voted to go on strike if a new deal was not reached. A new deal was not reached and the company locked out the workers.

Speaking of unions. My wife and I stopped at Kroger the other night right before they closed. There were three employees around. Two of them were off the clock and in the checkout line picking a few things up to take home. The third was the cashier.

I am not sure how they got on the subject, but the cashier was slamming their union. He said he thought unions might have had a place in the 1930s, but now they don't do squat (or another word that starts with s and ends with t) but take your money. The other two employees agreed.

Miss a Day, Miss a Lot

2006-03-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

I was gone most of the day today and when I got back not long ago and checked Bloglines I realized how active the VA bloggers are. Makes it hard to keep up.

A few random thoughts from when I was driving today. I always search for new radio stations when I am driving in areas where I do not have a favorite. I have not spent much time in NOVA recently, but was passing through today and during the news they kept mentioning that the heat was out at Dulles. The reporter made a comment about it being cool and said that was definitely below room temperature. Hmm. I had no idea that room temperature was something that was considered (roughly) a constant. I thought room temperature was the temperature of the room you are in. So, if I am in a room that is 50 degrees, is that not room temp? And if I am in a room, can the temperature of that room be less than room temperature? I guess it can, shows how much I know.

One thing about the Wikipedia page. I love that they include the temp in Kelvin. I think it would be fun to start using Kelvin as my unit of measure for temperature, light speed for speed, and parsecs for distance. Just have to make sure I take my calculator. Everyone would think I am a nerd, but with my dumb sense of humor I think it would be funny.

Also heard a minute of the Dan Patrick show today. Former Philly Darren Daulton is a little, um, different. He is into numerology and metaphysics. He can do whatever he wants, but it kind of took me by surprise. I wonder if there was something in the water back when he played for the Phillies. That whole team was a cast of odd characters.

Strike?

2006-02-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

This is not Virginia related, but thought I would post on it anyway. I grew up, and most of my family still lives, in Middletown, Ohio. It is a city of around 52,000 people. The largest employer, AK Steel, employs around 3,400 people, of which 2,700 are members of the union (AEIF).

From the Cincinnati Enquirer

On Feb. 17 and 18, AEIF members voted 2,368 to 56 to authorize a strike if no agreement was reached by the midnight deadline.

.....

AK’s management says it needs what it calls “industry competitive’’ labor agreements to sustain profitability in the global steel-market. Analysts have estimated AK has as much as a $50 a ton cost disadvantage to its rivals because of its labor costs.

There is not much else in Middletown. There are some other steel processing plants, but if someone is looking for a good job they go to AK to find one. I am no big fan of unions and this is another reason why. AK does not make money like they used to and they have tremendous pension and healthcare costs that could easily bankrupt them if there are not changes.

One of the big sticking points is pensions and healthcare. AK wants the employees to pay part of their insurance, right now I do not believe they pay any. If the employees are that unhappy with the thought of having to pay part of their own healthcare they should find another job (do you think they could?) where they are not responsible for any of their healthcare costs. I have no problem with the union trying to negotiate the best deal, but when the company draws the line if the employees are not happy with it I am sure there are plenty of unemployed people who would gladly work for what the company is offering.

Another point of contention is the number of job classifications. There are currently 1,000 job classifications. Remember, there are only 2,700 union employees. Wow, makes me think of the story (not at AK, I do not think) someone told me about how if a maintenance worker was going to be working and needing tools a person would be required under the union agreement to be working the counter where tools are checked out. Sure wouldn't trust the maintenance worker to get his own tools.

I am not sure what the demand for an out of work steel worker is, but I doubt it is very high. Maybe for once a union worker could be appreciative of the job they have and realize that in spite of how terrible they think they may have it, it is not really that bad after all.

I Am Taking Money from the General Fund

2006-02-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

Do you hear that? The caterwauls you hear are from those who nearly have a breakdown with the mere mention of someone going towards the sacred general fund.

One more cry that we will be paving the streets with textbooks or hospital beds (and probably cute little puppies too) and I am likely to go jump in the James. Despite what you hear, teacher pay will not be cut. Education funding will not be cut. As Norm has said a million times, when it comes to a choice between roads and schools, schools ALWAYS win. Anyone who believes otherwise is foolish.

Jim over at Bacon’s Rebellion gives us these numbers to ponder:

FY 2003...... $ 9.55 billion
FY 2004...... $ 9.97 billion (+4.4 percent)
FY 2005...... $11.2o billion (+12.4 percent)
FY 2006...... $12.05 billion (+7.6 percent)
FY 2007...... $13.70 billion (proposed) (+13.7 percent)
FY 2008...... $13.95 billion (proposed) (+1.8 percent)

This on the heels of a post over at QandO fairly recently that tells us that from 2001 through 2006 at the federal level “K-12 education spending increased from $23 billion to $40 billion.”

How do our schools manage? It must be tough getting by with those types of funding increases.

To suggest the state should not move money from the general fund to help pay for transportation is mind-boggling. Big government in Richmond has collected far more money than it should have over the last several years. Moving surplus money to areas where it is needed most makes sense.

For a moment, let us pretend I have a grocery fund at home. Every week I eat well. I put $100 into my fund and every week I spend that amount. Somehow I "unexpectedly" end up with extra money in my grocery fund. If I spend that extra money on something other than groceries I am not going to starve. I was never starving before and I am not going to start now because I am still spending the same amount.

Similarly, the government is not starving. A government cut is usually a reduction in the rate of growth. The House of Delegates plan that would give teachers a 3% raise instead of 4% is not a cut in pay. They are still making more money (whether they deserve it or not).

I took three years of German in high school. It is too bad that I never really learned much German, but I do still remember one thing my German teacher used to say:

Life is a swirling sucking eddy of despair filled with broken promises and shattered dreams in an ever darkening universe.

In short:

Life Sucks

If teachers believe they are not making enough money in their current position perhaps they should look for a new job. But maybe it is not that bad after all.

The National Bird

2006-02-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

I recently finished Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson. It was an ok book. I enjoyed the parts most that focused on the political aspect. When it came to reading about all of his lady friends I was not as interested.

One interesting thing was that Franklin thought the national bird should be the wild turkey. I know my history is lacking so it may be common knowledge, but I had no idea. Here is a link to a little history about it. Nothing against the turkey, but I am glad the eagle won out.

Tony Snow to be in Reds' Opening Day Parade

2006-02-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

Like Chad I am a big Reds fan. And I also like Tony Snow, so I thought it was kind of cool when I came across this article that says Snow is going to be in the Reds' Findlay Market Opening Day parade.

It is still a little ways away, but the start of baseball season is always exciting. Not as exciting as football, but still exciting. I just hope that the Reds have a good year.

Can Virginians Drive?

2006-02-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

Zach notes the finishes of Virginians in the Daytona 500. Outside of Sadler, not as good as one might hope, but to have four drivers in the race is pretty impressive by itself.

Too bad all Virginians cannot drive like that. Via Drudge comes the article about how there were over 100 accidents caused by less than an inch of snow on I-64 between Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. Wow, that is bad. I sure hope we can give them all tickets so we can increase the revenue for transportation......

Are They Selling the Old Ones?

2006-02-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

Henrico County schools decided on Apple for the laptops for the middle schools. Will they be selling the old ones and will it bring on a repeat of the scene from last year?

More seriously, why do middle school students need laptops? Is there not a better use of $15.8 million? Pencil and paper no longer make the grade? Maybe I am getting old fashioned, but does a laptop help a student learn math, history, science, etc that much better than with a pencil, paper, and a book?

Word of the Day - Harebrained

2006-02-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

As seen on these very pages yesterday, I called the Senate plan for financing roads a "harebrained idea." It appears the RTD agrees.

This year's gold medal for tax complification goes to the Rube Goldbergs of the Senate Finance Committee, who have come up with an idea so astoundingly hare-brained it just might become state law.

The word harebrained, sometimes spelled hairbrained, has been around since at least 1548. Check out the link for some history of the word. One particularly useless bit:

"...the reference is pretty clearly to the apparently stupidly senseless behaviour of hares in the mating season...."

Maybe we need a new word - senatorbrained:

the reference is pretty clearly to the apparently stupidly senseless behaviour of legislators (specifically senators) in the general assembly session

Maybe that is a little harsh, but that they believe new revenue (taxes) must be created or raised every two years is absurd.

Keeping your receipts

2006-02-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

Norm has some good posts about the scheme proposed by some of our brilliant senators:

Save Your Receipts
More on Keeping Your Receipts

If there is a more harebrained idea to come out of a legislature I am not sure what it is. One thing is for sure, I would save and send my receipts. If I only bought a gallon of gas I would send in the receipt. Of course, I would end up in the red on the transaction due to the cost of a stamp, but it would be worth it to get a dime out of their hands.

In their effort to be creative the Senate is showing us that that is exactly what they lack. I do not see the House going for this idea, but if they were I would see the rebate lasting a year, after which the Governor and Senate would claim they need more money for transportation and cancel it.

TMG Recap

2006-02-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

Looks like I am the slacker in the group of bloggers that was that at the Tuesday Morning Group meeting yesterday. What happened was that I went to the General Assembly Building afterwards and a masked legislator stole my notes thinking they were tax dollars the state was entitled to.

The primary draw was former Gov. Jim Gilmore. I had also hoped to see Sen. Cuccinelli, but he was unable to make it. Norm was there (in a tie, no less) and has an excellent recap. Old Zach from SST was also there and has a recap as well. It was nice meeting him.

There are also articles in the RTD and the Daily Progress.

Victoria Cobb from the Family Foundation spoke first. She talked about the three school choice bills (SB 545, HB 1294, & SB 189). SB 189 was the most comprehensive bill and the one that would have been the best. However, it died a quick death. What surprised me is that SB 545 was sponsored by Sen. Stosch. That shows some improvement and perhaps a reason to be optimistic, but then when you look at what happened to SB 189 it shows how far we have to go. HB 1294 has passed the house, but the limit seems very low. I wonder what real impact it will have if passed.

Up next was former Gov. Gilmore. This was the first time I have heard Gov. Gilmore speak, except when he was at a Kilgore event I attended. I thought he did a good job. He talked about what he is doing now, (not surprisingly) the car tax, transportation, and the state of affairs at the RPV.

I was impressed with his defense of the car tax relief. Gilmore said that the budget will always equal the revenues. It will always all be spent and suggested that money not spent would go one of two places - to complete the phase out of the car tax or to the rainy day fund. I suppose rebates were left out because they have no real chance of happening.

It is unfortunate that the government feels they should always keep everything the taxpayers send them. Gilmore said changing that attitude would be mountain climbing. When we cannot get rid of a 200 year old tax like BPOL it seems we are unable to climb a mole hill. The car tax relief is better than nothing and I certainly want to see the end of it, but we need a TABOR. Until then, if the car tax relief keeps one government program from being created and keeps a nickel in my pocket than it is worth it.

To put more money into transportation Gilmore suggested we move the existing sales tax on car parts to the transportation fund. Sounds reasonable to me. He most definitely does not think we need another tax hike. Another good point was, if we raise taxes, what do we do with the money? Are there plans out there to improve congestion? Or would we be throwing money at a problem with no real solution in mind?

The most interesting part of his talk referred to the current state of affairs at the RPV. Taking a swipe at Kilgore he said we can't run on "niche issues" like the death penalty. We have to focus on people and the issues they care about - education, safety, transportation, and taxes. The RPV is not solely to blame. The bulk of the blame falls at the feet of the legislature he claims. I agree. If we had fiscal conservatives in, primarily, the senate we would not be in this mess. Another problem is that many of the GOP leaders have reached that point based on seniority.

Gilmore stressed that we must be the party of ideas. We cannot be "Democrat lite." And we must make our case everyday to the people. I hope the former Governor continues staying out front and putting his ideas out there. I know there are those who do not care much for him, but I am a fan.

Education spending

2006-02-13T22:28:00.000-05:00

Some good posts over at Morgan's Riflemen and Elephant Ears about one of my favorite subjects - education spending. A weekly paper in Goochland cannot be read without someone complaining about school funding or teacher salaries.

I was talking to two of my cousins who attend Goochland High School over the weekend. There are some things that struck me. One of my cousins has study hall in the teachers lounge. The first thing that surprised me was that they are allowed in there. That was a sacred area when I was in school. At least it seemed to be.

In this lounge they have a washer and dryer. Why? That really baffles me. In my high school we had a washer and dryer in a classroom, presumably so we could learn to do laundry. (I only ever saw it in use once when a guy on the football team did not wash his jersey from the previous week, but I digress.) What is the point of having a washing machine and dryer in a teachers only area? Maybe there is a good explanation, but that alone makes it more difficult to believe the cries of the school administration when they say they need more money. What other non-essential items do they need?

There is also a courtyard. Why is a courtyard necessary at a high school? They claim it is for making it easier to get from class to class. So a courtyard was the only option? Maybe a different architect should have been consulted. From what I recall the cost was relatively low, but that does not excuse the fact that it is unnecessary and wasteful spending.

One last thing, there are at least 6 "teacher pods" as I believe my cousin called them. These rooms are for teachers to go to grade papers. What? Do teachers not have their own classroom? What is wrong with using the classroom for grading papers?

BATFE Abuse at Richmond Gun Shows

2006-02-13T22:11:00.000-05:00

Via the NRA-ILA comes the news that there will be a hearing regarding the actions of the BATFE over the past year or so at Richmond gun shows. This made news last year. To be honest, I am not sure how much it was reported, but in the 2nd Amendment crowd it was big news. I am somewhat surprised that a hearing is taking place.

BATFE agents copied lawful gun purchase transaction records and provided this information to local police officers, who in turn conducted "residency checks." Federal law prohibits the release of this information except to state and local police to identify prohibited purchasers or recipients of guns. The information provided to local police prompted multiple instances of officers showing up at the homes of those who lawfully purchased firearms from licensed dealers at area gun shows. On occasions when the lawful purchasers were not at home, agents questioned family members (for example, inquiring of a wife if she knew her husband was at a gun show and/or had purchased a firearm) or their neighbors. In other cases, reports surfaced of lawful gun owners and holders of valid carry permits having their firearms confiscated.

I am not sure if I would be more upset about the BATFE breaking the law or about them telling my wife. But seriously, I am happy to see that something is being done. However, I doubt it will produce any real consequences or actions.

ETA: Forget to mention the hearing is today. Apparently it can be watched online.

Health Savings Accounts

2006-02-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

Something I have been meaning to post about for a while now are Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Madisonian over at SST points us to the Washington Post op-ed about health care. Not surprisingly the op-ed is not in favor of HSAs. The author claims HSAs only help the rich.

I am not rich, but I really like the the idea of HSAs. I am not sure why health insurance has to be so different from other types of insurance. I do not know the answer, but when did it become an employers obligation to provide health insurance? Why do we not purchase health insurance like we do life, home, or auto?

A couple of good posts regarding HSAs:
Becker-Posner blog - Health Care Reform
Marginalizing Morons

Upgraded to Silver

2006-02-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

Not Larry Sabato has updated his blogroll. Thanks for the upgrade! There are those that do not like his rating system, but I think it is kind of fun. It always sparks debate and it is something a little different than the standard. The only real complaint I have about the current levels is where One Man's Trash is. Norm is platinum all the way.

They were right

2006-02-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

A lot of it has melted, but I figured when I got up this morning I would not see any more snow than I did last night. Much to my surprise the weather forecast was correct.

Virginia's largest employers

2006-02-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

This should not surprise me, but it does everytime I see a list like this. I came across a list of Virginia's top 50 employers and 24 of the top 50 were either federal, state, or local government. Of those 24, 10 were public school systems. In fact, coming in at number three was Fairfax County Public Schools. It does not give employment numbers on the list I found, but they are behind Wal-Mart and in front of Newport News Shipbuilding.

It always amazes me how many are on the taxpayer payroll.

Public-Private Partnerships

2006-02-09T10:45:00.000-05:00

I have been reading Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson. I am about halfway through and one thing that caught my eye was this:

By coming up with what is now known as the matching grant, Franklin showed how government and private initiative could be woven together, which remains to this day a very American approach. He believed in volunteerism and limited government, but also that there was a legitimate role for government in fostering the common good. By working through public-private partnerships, he felt, governments could have the best impact while avoiding the imposition of too much authority from above.

I did not realize the PPPs had been around for 250 years. Interesting. I also found this about the Pocahontas Parkway. I did not realize that Route 288 was a PPP.

Smoking ban lives to see another day

2006-02-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

Via the RTD, SB 648, the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act, was voted down 20-18 in the Senate today, but it apparently lives to see another day. As is currently worded it would allow localities, not the state, to ban smoking in restaurants. Sen. Bell may change the bill to make it statewide, rather than local.

Quite frankly, I am surprised the bill received 18 votes. I am not a smoker now, nor have I ever been, but if the owner of a restaurant or any other establishment wants to allow smoking in his or her building, they should be able to. I do not consider it a right of mine to be able to go into a smoke free building.

Oh, those crazy senators. If this fails next thing you know they will propose requiring any restaurant that allows smoking to have a cigarette license, similar to a liquor license.

Another Democratic nominee for the Senate

2006-02-08T08:09:00.000-05:00

James H. Webb Jr. announced yesterday he will seek the Democratic nominee for the Senate race this year. Here is the RTD article.

Webb, who was secretary of the Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan, resigned in protest of cutbacks in the Navy fleet. He has been a strong critic of the war in Iraq, saying that the Bush administration has never developed an exit strategy.

Webb is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Marines in the Vietnam War. He is the author of the nonfiction book "Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America," as well as six novels.

I am not sure who will be expected to win between Webb and Miller, but it is interesting that Webb, who served under President Reagan, wants to defeat Allen, who is probably the most "Reaganesque" Senator we have.

What, no MythBusters or Mail Call?

2006-02-08T08:04:00.000-05:00

It seems everyone and their brother has posted their response to "Four Things" and I've got one small problem. I did not see one mention of MythBusters or Mail Call. Those are about the only two shows worth watching. Watching the guys on MythBusters blow up a cement truck or R. Lee Ermey pump some watermelons full of lead is great tv.

Proposed taxes die in committee

2006-02-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

As has been posted nearly everywhere else, the new taxes proposed by the Governor died yesterday in the House Finance Committee. Elephant Ears notes that two of those who voted against the increase voted for the tax hike in 2004. Hopefully this means that the House is more unified against any increases.

While reading both the Goochland Courier and Goochland Gazette last week there was a letter to the editor from Dr. Frank Morgan, the Goochland schools superintendent. Not surprisingly, he does not want to see money come from the General Fund to pay for transportation and takes to quoting Governor Kaine. Taking money from the GF to pay for transportation would be “a road to fiscal disaster; a road paved with school books, nursing home beds and public safety resources.” Dr. Morgan goes on to say "The state’s legitimate transportation needs should not be solved by shortchanging education, not to mention human services and public safety."

Hearing stuff like that makes me want to throw up. Over the last 30 years inflation adjusted education spending is up 70% while student enrollment is up 13%. Meanwhile, I believe SAT scores have remained the same. Education does not suffer from a lack of funding. And moving money from the GF to transportation will not be the beginning of a lack of funding.

The only group that suffers with the current rate of government growth are the taxpayers.

There's a lesson here that we all should write on the blackboard 100 times -- in a child's education, money can never take the place of basics like discipline, hard work, and, yes, homework. - Ronald Reagan

Mammuthus jeffersoni

2006-02-06T17:23:00.000-05:00

In an effort to be clever the name for this blog comes from the Mammuthus jeffersoni (aka Jefferson Mammoth). The Jefferson Mammoth is similar to the woolly mammoth. Since the GOP logo is an elephant I originally thought Elaphas maximus would be a good name, but quite frankly, I do not just want to be a GOP cheerleader.

From what I remember mammoths are the only elephant like creature to have roamed the US, but now, like Republicans with Jeffersonian principles, they are extinct. Hence, the name. Ok, not all Republicans have abandoned the ideals of smaller government, free markets, and individual liberty, but we seem to be outnumbered.

"I know my own principles to be pure and therefore am not ashamed of them. On the contrary, I wish them known and therefore willingly express them to everyone. They are the same I have acted on from the year 1775 to this day, and are the same, I am sure, with those of the great body of the American people." - Thomas Jefferson