Monday, October 31, 2011

Presidio volunteers make a difference in community projects

Presidio volunteers make a difference in community projects
During World War II, Avila saw action in Europe. Then, after the war, he settled in Pacific Grove, where his family had recently moved to from Modesto, Calif. He joined the Army Reserve and re-enrolled in school, graduating from Pacific Grove High School in 1947.

He has been living in his current Seaside residence since 1980.

On Oct. 22 volunteers from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and Presidio of Monterey had the opportunity to lend a hand to Avila and the local community by participating in service projects as part of the nationwide Make A Difference Day.

Labels: , ,

|

An observation

When the first snowfall is extremely wet and heavy, and it comes before the trees have shed their leaves, the effect can be ... significant. Many in Massachusetts are going to be without power for days as a result of this one. Mine was only out for about 13-14 hours, but my office has been down for almost 48, at this point, and it could be 72 more before it's back...

Labels: ,

|

Friday, October 28, 2011

DEAR AMERICA: It’s Time To Say A Big “Thank You” To Amazon

Henry Blodget:
If more American companies started to do what Amazon does--ignore short-term pressures, sacrifice near-term profits, and invest for the long-term--the American economy would start to heal itself quickly. America would create more innovation, more jobs, and more long-term wealth. And, just as important, more Americans would be able to go back to being proud of our corporations and innovators and entrepreneurs... instead of camping in parks and protesting them.
As both a long-time customer, and a long-time investor in Amazon, let me just say, "Amen." (And I wish I'd invested 10 times what I did when I first got in, and I'm not selling now...)

Labels: , ,

|

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

How the 1 percent ‘harm’ us

Frank J. Fleming has correctly identified the mindset of the "Occupy America" crowd...
Here’s the thing: They’re the 1 percent, but we’re the 99 percent. Their wealth may be much more than ours, but 99 is a much bigger number than one. So we should just gang up and take their money.

When one person takes the property of another, that’s tyranny, but when lots of people get together and do it, that’s democracy
. So we should legislate that the 1 percent no longer get to keep that vast wealth and must instead distribute it among the rest of us. (I should get the largest portion because it was my idea.)

After we’ve taken care of their wealth, to keep the nation happy and prosperous we should pass a law making it illegal for there to be a wealthiest 1 percent -- this country should just be the normal 99 percent.

Sure, that isn’t mathematically possible, but government shouldn’t be about what’s possible; it should be about what’s fair.
Click the link. Read it all. Brilliant...

Labels: , , ,

|

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Spotted on facebook...

Labels: ,

|

Monday, October 24, 2011

Will The US Be Different From Greece?

Jeffrey Carter:
We are in a situation that calls for pretty radical change from the perspective of a socialist. But if you are a capitalist/entrepreneur, the changes we need to make aren’t that big a deal. It’s more like the normal course of daily existence.

The Greeks are on the march. No doubt, their kin in the US, public employee unions and socialists, will hit the streets here. They will make a lot of noise, and create a lot of fear. The reality is we cannot afford them anymore.

Things like that are a legacy of the past, just like buggy whip manufacturers.
The demographics of the United States allowed us to maintain, for the last 70 years or so, the fiction that the government could fund everything that anyone wanted funding, that we could pay for care from the cradle to the grave, and there would always be enough money available to do that without running out.

The demographics are changing...

Labels: , ,

|

Friday, October 21, 2011

Here's the real question...

...why is it that high?

Obama job approval: Worst quarter yet
President Obama's cumulative job approval for the last quarter was the lowest of his entire administration and put him historically down in the lowlands of Jimmy Carter country.

The 41% average job approval for Obama's 11th quarter in office (july 20-Oct. 19) was down four points from his previous low (the 7th quarter) and down six points since the tenth quarter at the beginning of summer.

Labels: , ,

|

Questions that answer themselves...

"Why cant I get a job in my field ? "

Labels: ,

|

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Been out of town...

...but in case I don't get a chance to write today, here are a couple of pictures...


It says something positive about the nation that this is a task which is taken seriously...


The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial works.


The Air Force Memorial also works, but it works much better on-site than off.


Quite a view from "Bobby Lee's" Arlington House...


Fife and drum jam session with The Old Guard


"Hmm... That's bigger than I expected it to be..."

Labels: ,

|

Thursday, October 13, 2011

You can't make this stuff up...

I had started to make some comments about the intellectual capability of an Illinois congressman, but have decided that his comments really speak for themselves...

Jesse Jackson Jr. - Congress in Rebellion
Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that congressional opposition to the American Jobs Act is akin to the Confederate “states in rebellion.”

Jackson called for full government employment of the 15 million unemployed and said that Obama should “declare a national emergency” and take “extra-constitutional” action “administratively” — without the approval of Congress — to tackle unemployment.

“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,” Jackson said.
Clearly, he took his congressional oath of office, to protect and uphold the Constitution, seriously...

Labels: , , ,

|

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Follow Your Bliss—Sort Of

Megan McArdle has a good piece about that commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford several years ago.
Steve Jobs', um, job, is to tell graduates how they could be Steve Jobs. And if they are to have any chance, they do indeed need to follow their bliss and take risks rather than settling down to a degree in accounting.

But not everyone has the potential to be Steve Jobs. Not just because most people are rather more ordinary, but because there are a limited number of jobs that are really fun, greatly admired, and fairly well remunerated, which is what most people want.
She's got some valuable, mature, adult advice. It's a good read.

Labels: ,

|

Monday, October 10, 2011

Shall We Gather At The River

Shall We Gather At The River - Park Street Church Sanctuary Choir, 10/9/2011

Labels: , ,

|

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

NFL vs. NEA

Fran Tarkenton (of all people) with an excellent thought experiment in the Wall Street Journal...
Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.

Let's face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt?

No matter how much money was poured into the league, it wouldn't get better. In fact, in many ways the disincentive to play harder or to try to stand out would be even stronger with more money.

Of course, a few wild-eyed reformers might suggest the whole system was broken and needed revamping to reward better results, but the players union would refuse to budge and then demonize the reform advocates: "They hate football. They hate the players. They hate the fans." The only thing that might get done would be building bigger, more expensive stadiums and installing more state-of-the-art technology. But that just wouldn't help.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the NFL in this alternate reality is the real -life American public education system. Teachers' salaries have no relation to whether teachers are actually good at their job—excellence isn't rewarded, and neither is extra effort. Pay is almost solely determined by how many years they've been teaching. That's it. After a teacher earns tenure, which is often essentially automatic, firing him or her becomes almost impossible, no matter how bad the performance might be. And if you criticize the system, you're demonized for hating teachers and not believing in our nation's children.

Labels: , ,

|

Monday, October 03, 2011

Service music - 10/2/2011

Park Street Church Sanctuary Choir, 10/2/2011


Introit: Holy, Holy, Holy




Anthem: O How Amiable

Labels: , ,

|