Gas-Out

Has anyone else been sent the May 15th Gas-Out email? An internet chain letter has been making the rounds urging drivers not to buy any gas on Tuesday, May 15th. The letter claims that a one day gas-out will cost the oil companies over $3 billion in profits.

Myron Goff of Michigan (where you get free ipods) says, "It's going to take profits away from them and that's all they are worried about - profits."

What's ridiculous about the whole thing is the idea that drivers could really put a dent in oil profits. It's not like a restaurant, where if I get bad service and stop eating there and tell all my friends, they technically could begin to lose money. There are other restaurants where I can choose to eat. But even if all the drivers in the U.S. participate in the gas-out day, all they're doing is shifting the profits to Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, etc. We have to buy gas to live normal lives in this country. Gas is a necessity. (Note: That's why my energy stocks are doing so well... Midas profits from "big oil" profits!)

I like this guy's plan: "I am buying TWO tanks of gas on May 15th. Can you guess why? I'm going to waste a whole tank driving around smacking my so-called friends in the head with a rolled-up newspaper for giving in to such idiotic nonsense."

Prediction - KY Derby

Every year, I'll pick a derby winner and give a buddy of mine money to bet the horse to win for me. Since I was in a hurry, I couldn't find the posted odds and names of the horses in the paper so when I saw my buddy last night I gave him $20 and said "put 20 on the #4".

I just checked the number 4 horse, A Storm In May. Nice name for a horse. Well, the horse just happens to be blind in one eye, looks like it about 15 years old and, I'm surprised, has all four legs. He's also a 30 -1 shot. Seriously, check this horse out. I can't even find a good picture of him because I think it's been in the witness protection program.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I bet on Barbaro, I watched Barbaro win and A Storm in May, you're no Barbaro.

So to keep up with my legacy of bad predictions, I'm sticking with the number #4, A Storm in May, to win.

Economics 101

A humorous economic lesson on You Tube.

Could it be that economists might be funnier than accountants.

Indoctrinate U

A documentary justed released on the virtue of free speech and new ideas on college campuses.

Check out the trailer

Hello? Would you like an IPod

A Michigan teen's cell phone number turns out to be a former number of Gov Jennifer Granholm.

I wonder if you can tell the difference.

To bee or not to bee

The honey bee is disappearing across the country. Of course, all the chicken little crowds believe this will lead to the end of food and civilization as we know it.

People have a number of different theories as to why it is happening: the earth's magnetic field, cell phones, Kevin Federline concerts, or maybe there was a bee rapture.

I chalk it up to global warming and put all the blame on George W. Bush.

Bad examples

It's a shame when people who are out in the public eye speaking against vices like drunk driving and drug use succumb to the very thing they claim they are trying to stop. It just goes to show you that no one is immune to errors in judgement. But if you want to be in the spotlight, you're going to be judged more rigorously if you do fail and make mistakes.

A Cincinnati police officer who recently received an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving is behind bars at the Dearborn County jail this morning on drunken driving charges, county officials said.

Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda was arrested after a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over for speeding and found drugs in the car. Cepeda works for the Giants as a community liaison and speaks to at-risk children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Laurie David

Here's an interview with Sheryl's partner in crime, Laurie David, and here's a quote about Al Gore.

By the time I was done working with him, I was begging him to adopt me. He's like a father figure to me, one of my heroes. He's so charming and lovely and smart and funny. He makes fun of himself; he's got a great sense of humor. He's dry and he laughs at other people's jokes.

Are you serious? Is she allowed to vote?

But here's the question and answer which really caught my attention

5 What changes have you made in your own life?

I don't believe everyone has to do everything. I don't do everything. It's about everyone doing something. I have changed as many lightbulbs as I could to (higher efficiency) bulbs. I started a new idling rule at the school carpool lane (cars dropping and picking up kids can't idle their engines more than 30 seconds). I bring a garment bag to the dry cleaners (instead of having the dry cleaners wrap her clothes in petroleum-based plastic). I drive a hybrid.

If you believe this is as serious a problem as she apparently does don't you think you should do everything you can. Like instead of car pooling her kids why not have them use the buses that are already running? Why have clothing that needs dry cleaning in the first place, she can't simply have some nice cotton and polyester outfits?

It's day 22 of the Sheryl Crow Biodiesel Caravan Tour. Do you think she flew commercial when she flew over to France to watch Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France?

Northern Exposure

Strapped for money. No problem if you're the state of Michigan. You can still afford I pods for kids. Trips to Hawaii for your pension administrators. Say what?

Michigan is sending 80 delegates for a week long trip to Hawaii, twice the number of any other state.

Maybe Michigan should change it's state's slogan to

"Michigan - making Ohio look business friendly since 1970"

I bet Sheryl hasn't read this

I swore about 20 global warming posts ago, that I wasn't going to post on global warming again.

Unfortunately, it appears that the hysteria surrounding this issue is going to result in injurious public policy. And frankly, that's the mission of this blog, to inform the public of such lunacy.

Given this mass hysteria in an attempt to influence public policy, I think it is incumbent upon ole Gordon to pee on these fires where they exist.

Here's a post in which a former global warming advocate has changed his mind on the matter.

His thoughts which have always been my concern is the causation between CO2 increases to temperature increases. The writers thoughts... temperatures increases are the cause of CO2 increases.

By the way, it's day 21 of the Sheryl Crow Bio Diesel Caravan tour. Out of curiosity, have you ever wondered about how much closet space Sheryl needs for all her clothes and shoes... All of which are made by foreign sweatshops dumping serious CO2 in the atmosphere. I guess it's all OK because she buys carbon credits and 1 square per bathroom trip.

PC Ham Sandwich

In a case of political correctness running wild, serving a ham sandwich around a Muslim is currently being called a "hate crime" in one school.

The latest incident of “Muslim outrage” involves a middle-school student purportedly placing a ham sandwich wrapped in a baggie on a lunch table where Somali Muslim students sit. One 14 year-old unnamed Somali student is reported to have said: “At the school the next day, I didn’t feel safe. I felt like everybody was against me. Before I felt like I fit in, and everything was normal.” The ham-placing “offending student” has been suspended, the Maine middle school is calling the placing of the ham sandwich a “hate crime” and the local police are investigating the child. More charges against the child may be forthcoming.

FSM: Muslims Call Ham Sandwich Hate Crime

Fred Thompson

Yesterday, I heard an interview with Fred Thompson. While I'm indifferent to him as a presidential candidate, I do think he's one of the few politicians that "get it".

When asked about Ronald Reagan's communication skills he said (roughly quoting)

"People think Ronald Reagan was a great communicator because of his acting background. I think he was a great communicator because he was believable and he was believable because he believed"

That one hit's it out of the park.

When Global Warming is Not

Now that we know that SUV's are the cause of everything wrong in our environment, it's interesting to see that Mars continues to warm.

If you're a greenie, your first guess is what? Those rovers up there are really SUV's sitting on idle.

Yep, Mars has warmed by .5 degrees celsius since 1970 and is starting to lose it's southern ice cap.

But I love how some of these GWDD (Global Warming Ding Dongs from here on out), try to explain that away.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.

Let me make sure I've got this right, when Mount Pinatubo blows volcanic ash across the world & temperatures dropped because the soot blocked the sun rays, but on Mars, dust entraps the heat.

Isn't it also interesting that this article is based on NASA data yet was reported in Britain. Where's the US coverage?

By the way, it's day 14 of the Sheryl Crow Carbon Foot Print Tour. This past weekend, she hauled her biodiesel caravan to NY for the Bob Costas annual benefit show. By the way, has anyone noticed that Bio Diesel Sheryl has allowed her songs to be used by 4, yes that's, FOUR car companies. You know, the evil companies conspiring with big oil and big tobacco to ruin the world.

I'm glad she's down to a square and that she probably would never want to shake old Gordon's hand.

Doing something for something's sake

I hate to write about this subject because inevitably people always draw the conclusion that I'm soft on sex offenders. But these so called 1000 feet rules on sex offenders are absolutely ridiculous.

First, we need to understand the nature of the crime committed. It's is very rare that a sex crime involving a child is committed by a stranger. I received a call from a radio station sales rep telling me that 200,000 children in this country are abducted every year. I called her out on the math. If that were true an Amber alert would be out 24/7. In fact, child abductions by a stranger are so rare, it's a national story when a child appears to be abducted by a stranger.

In the Cincinnati area, look at the public attention to the Marcus Feisel case when it was feared he might be abducted. 200,000 a year? I think not.

Second, many of the people who end up on the sex offenders list commit what are called "opportunistic" offenses, not predator offenses. An opportunistic offender would be a 22 year old having a consensual sexual relationship with a 15 year old. While, yes it should be a crime, to think this is someone who is a general threat to society after they do their time is kind of hysteric.

But politicians peddling to the kind of hysteria surrounding Polly Klaus have put in place a public policy that make absolutely no sense in controlling this type of crime. In addition, the politicians expanded the definition of who a sexual offender is that no one can really distinguish between someone who is a threat to their children and who is not.

For instance, under current law, a sex offender cannot live within a thousand feet of a school yet it's perfectly legal for that same offender to drive up next to a school and watch kids on a play ground or a park.

I know a guy who is a sex offender, as part of his probation, he must be inside of his home by 10:00 pm. Just how many kids are out on the street at that time?

Politicians throw these kind of laws out so it looks like they are doing something and the public gets a false sense of security that all the bad guys have been put away; all the while it's Uncle Buddy you really need to worry about.

If the public really believes that these guys are such a threat, the smartest solution would be to strap a GPS monitor on every convicted sex offender's ankle and monitor each and every move they make. If the offender goes to an area the court believes should be off limits or the offender takes off the monitor for any reason, it's an automatic 5 years in prison.

Instead, we are going to force these guys to live in modern day leper colonies. At least they'll be able to live with the smokers.

The War & the GOP

This war was doomed from the beginning for many reasons, one being political correctness. We didn't go in, level Baghdad and kick butt. The US was more worried about civilian moral and not striking any mosques than destroying the enemy. William F. Buckley wonders if the GOP will ever recover from the failures of the Iraq war.

"The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq.

Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats’ attempt to force Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will of course veto the bill, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people’s laws, opposes the war."

Newpaper circulation

Here's a list of the nation's largest newspapers and their circulation growth or lack there of.

1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent

2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent

3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent

4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent

5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent

6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent

7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent

8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent

9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent

10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent

11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent

12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent

13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent

14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent

15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent

16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent

17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent

18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent

19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent

20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent

I find it interesting that papers with a reputation for being conservative, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post actually have increases in growth while the liberal papers, the NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post and Minneapolis Star Tribune are all down.

I'm not familiar with the other paper's reputations. Maybe someone could clue us in as to whether this holds up for the others as well.

If you read my post, PBS Hatchet Job II, I noted how the media has become more and more a tool for the insider than it is an actual news reporting vehicle. I love newspapers, there's just something about going to a quiet place (ie the hopper) and combing through all articles. But I have to admit, I'm getting tired of puff pieces and the lack of depth in a normal news article.

It occurs to me that most papers are now nothing more than a conglomeration of AP news releases. I can have that all with one click to Drudge.

When newspaper go by the wayside, it will be from their own hands.

Smoking Ban

Enforcement of Ohio's smoking ban begins this week.

One of the questions I have is why do private clubs get a pass on this law?

It's a sore subject to my family since my Dad owns a bar nearby two private clubs. The clubs already have a competitive advantage over his bar because 1) their liquor license is about one third the price of his 2) they are allowed to gamble in the form of pull off bingo tickets as long as the profits go to charity 3) now they are allowed smoking with their confines.

If smoking is so horrible why are we letting the private clubs smoke? Maybe, like a lot of issues, the closer it gets to the grass roots the more likely people are to revolt against it.

In my Dad's case, these people will be flocking out of his bar to these private clubs. All my Dad does is follow the law, pays his taxes and keeps his license paid current.

Now that business will be going to private clubs who pay no tax and the vice continues.

If you are one of these do gooders (of course if you are a do gooder you've never been to my Dad's bar out of general principle), how do you compensate my father for your "cause"? or do you justify it in the name of the "common good".

Why bad things happen to good people?

It's my intention that whenever I'm nearby a computer on Sunday's I intend post some type of pity spiritual thought.

There's probably no better place to start than looking at the Va Tech shootings and questioning why God allows such tragedies.

First, it's important to know that God doesn't allow anything to happen to anyone on this earth.

In the beginning, God gave humans dominion on the earth as his gift to them. He made it perfect for humans in his form. His only demand was that humans not eat from the tree of good and evil. Which didn't take long for us to defy.

The other thing to note was that God places a solutions to every problem on earth. It lies within each of us. How many people did the Va Tech shooter encounter prior to the shooting who knew he had problems. Teachers, friends, police. There were people all over the place that came in contact with the shooter yet no one did anything. How many people actually "loved on him".

I could never understand what people meant when people would tell me "well God told me to..." until I actually listened. When I see someone hurting, God is using my eyes to see the problem and my compassion to generate the solution.

God speaks to each of us to solve problems. When you see someone in obvious distress, God is whispering to you "you can be the solution". It reminds me of a Van Morrison lyrics

He heals the sick
and he heals the lame
and he says you can too
In Jesus name

Jesus even commands us in Matthew 45 ".... whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me".

It's why I'm so passionate about leaving governments out of solving problems. First, I don't think governments solve anything and second, it let's us off the hook from the growing that God has intended for us.

So this week, let's all go out and make a difference in someone's life and we won't have have to ask why God "let's these things happen".