Cheap, but no bargain

My friend Chet send me this to let me know I'm not the only person talking about things that are cheap, but not a bargain. Along those lines, I've noticed something interesting while grilling; those of my friends who use the cheap burgers from "le Mart du Wal" get a lot of flame-ups and scorched pieces of charcoal (that should have been burgers) due to the excessively high fat content (I'd guess at least 40%) in them.

Cheap, but since you don't actually get to eat anything, not exactly a bargain. I'll take my father-in-law's grass fed beef at about 95% lean over that any time.

Here's what you could lose....

....with health care reform, according to Fortune Magazine. In a nutshell, if you're one who actually gets a bit of exercise, avoids tobacco, and keeps a healthy weight, you will no longer be able to choose a high deductible health plan to "cash in" on your good choices.

This is, in a nutshell, why the Waxman/Obama plan, even as modified by so-called "conservative" Blue Dog Democrats, has no chance of reducing health care costs except by reducing the quantity and quality of care. In my family's case, "COBRA" coverage would have cost $1200/month--and that for a high deductible plan. The plan I got while unemployed was about $500/month.

By refusing to allow people to cash in on good health choices--like avoiding obesity and saving $1400/person annually--we can virtually guarantee that many Americans will never see the consequences of their actions until that first big heart attack or onset of lung cancer of emphesema.

Don't be fooled; the Blue Dogs have not fixed the problems with Obamacare, nor are they "conservative" by any stretch of the imagination. If your representative is a member of this caucus, remind him of these facts, and if he doesn't listen to sense, work to retire him from Congress come 2010.

Question for my legions of readers

In my experience, I've seen a lot of books about marriage that really mostly deal with the psychology with a little bit of Bible "window dressing" added. I've seen a lot of books for fathers on how to raise sons or daughters, and a lot of books for mothers for the same.

What I can't put my finger on; are there books out there helping women to bless their husbands' leadership, or for men to bless their wives' submission and homemaking? It seems to me that while many (say Focus on the Family) do a great job with the day to day, the spiritual foundation for a truly great marriage is being neglected by most Christian authors. Any thoughts? The closest I can think of these days is some of the work of Douglas Wilson.

And why can't we see this document?

Fox reports that a Hawaii record-keeper has looked at Barack Hussein Blagojevich Daley Jackson Khalidi Wright Pfleger Obama's original birth documents and declared them to be in order.

Fine, as far as it goes, but we're really trusting the testimony of one person, according to the article, when that document can be made public--theoretically without embarassing anyone, and proving his natural born status beyond any reasonable doubt. So why not release it? It's not like any sane person would judge him for something appearing on those documents.

Unless, of course, they show a significant portion of his life story to be a complete fraud. I don't believe they'd show he's foreign born (who in their right mind would have CHOSEN a third world country over Hawaii for obstetrics care, after all?), but this refusal to release pertinent information, like John Kerry's refusal to release his service records, clearly shows that he's got something to hide.

Lucky 13

Last night, my wife and I celebrated 13 awesome years together--as I wore #13 as my church's softball team lost its 13th game of the season to complete a "perfect" 0-13 season.

(for the record, the family went out to eat Sunday because we knew Monday would be packed)

If you try to tell me that baseball and softball are about winning and not about character, well, you'll get a bit of an argument from this lifelong Cubs fan. I hope that's not too self-serving. :^)

About that bank bailout....

...when the bank bailout passed last year, I assumed half-heartedly that it was more or less a choice of either the bailout or lots of bank failures sucking the deposit insurance trust fund dry. Now, it seems that we may be getting both.

Look down at the bottom paragraph, too; $16.8 billion in assets (loans outstanding) backed by $9.4 billion in deposits--which means that half of their loans are backed by money from the Fed. The next time Bernanke and Greenspan try to deny culpability, well, you can know that's not exactly true. While there are other causes (CRA, Fannie and Freddie) in play, half their loans were backed by the Fed--and that doesn't even count the bad loans they sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A good ethnic weekend

Had an absolutely "offal" weekend. How so?

Well, the family went to Kolacky Days, and tried a very interesting Czech sausage--jirnice (don't ask me how it's pronounced). The guy serving us wrinkled up his nose, but the family definitely preferred it to the kielbasa (Polish sausage) they also served. Didn't actually buy any kolacky--they were just store made in a bag, not at all like the treats my dad remembers from growing up in a Bohemian neighborhood (ethnically, not behaviorally) around Chicago. He could get a meal just by walking around the block and accepting a kolack from each mom who offered, more or less, when he was a little guy.

Also had chitterlings for the first time at a Chinese restaurant--pretty good, but a little bit salty and greasy. A fun bit for the Muckraker; one of the suckers given to my kids at this (very good) restaurant said "Maricopa County Recycles." Evidently you can buy labeled candies for cheap when the original buyer doesn't come through.

Creating a wardrobe

Commenter Gabrielle noted this column about men's "seen by someone else" attire, and wondered what might a woman do. Let's look at the recommendations for men first:

one or two suits in blue or grey
a blue or black jacket or sports coat
a jacket for summer (khaki or blue cotton or, if you want to be really fancy, seersucker)
a tweed jacket for winter
year-round grey wool trousers (light or dark or both)
a few pairs of khakis
3 white and 3 blue shirts
a selection of ties
2-3 pair of dress shoes in black & burgundy

This ignores the winter coat and casual clothes, of course, but it'll do for church, office, and more for most any man. So what do we do for the ladies?

Knowing that telling a woman what to wear risks sudden death, I made sure I ran the list by my dear wife. :^)

How about this; eliminate the suits and add 3-4 dresses, 3-4 skirts, and add a few blouses of differing colors for variety. The man's wardrobe is filled in 18" of closet space; the woman's probably in 30". By combining a few different colors for shirts and pants/skirts, almost infinite "looks" can be had without breaking the springs on the family 3/4 ton.

Along the same lines, I had a great experience shopping for new shirts recently. I walked into the store, and within five minutes, the owner not only figured out my proper size with a glance, but also set out a dozen shirts that would fit me and my style. I mentioned the experience to my wife and another woman at church, and they agreed that if a woman's clothing store could offer that kind of service, they'd get great business from them.

Yikes!

Evidently, the Democratic Party of Michigan has a plan for helping out the economy of that state; raise the minimum wage to $10, mandate employer paid health coverage, slash utility rates, and prevent home foreclosures from occurring.

It appears that these sage men and women are unaware of the fact that businesses might choose not to do business in Michigan, but instead relocate to far away places with a lower cost of doing business like "Indiana," "Ohio", "Ontario", and "Wisconsin." Somebody please get a copy of "The Wealth of Nations" or Bastiat's commentaries to Lansing, stat!

Pure Minnesota

Driving through Montgomery, a sign at a liquor store read "reserve your keg for Kolacky Days." Now Kolacky Days is a festival in honor of the Czech pastry, of which there are at least two major variants. The local variant is a sweet yeast dough with fruit preserves or poppyseed paste rolled into it in the same way a crescent roll is rolled; the other is butter and cream cheese pastry with the same, similar to Hamantaschen.

However, I can think of no case where the taste of these delectable pastries would be enhanced by large amounts of "Bug Light" or other cheap american beer. While certainly a mug of Pilsner Urquell or Budvar (the original, real, Budweiser) can go well with a Czech dinner, coffee would probably be the better choice for a few kolacke.

(kolack or kolacek is singular, kolache is plural, they taste so good you won't need to use the singular form very often, if you catch my drift)

Not the New York I've visited.....

In debate over a bill that would allow carry permit holders to carry legally in any state with "shall issue" concealed carry laws, New York Senator Charles Schumer said this:

If you walk down the street in New York ... you can have the solace of knowing that if someone has a gun on them they've gone through a rigorous police background check. After this bill, you can have no such comfort," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday.

Actually, in the New York (city especially) that I've visited, if someone is carrying a gun, they are most likely a street thug, not a carry permit holder. I don't know what New York Mr. Schumer is talking about, but it's not the one the Mets, Yankees, and Bills call home!

Never mind the fact that any carry permit IS done with a rigorous police background check in any state that issues them.

Logan's Run to Obamacare

RedState and SayAnything have apparently found that section 1233 of the Obama-favored healthcare bill requires senior citizens to discuss "dying with dignity" with their staff at least once every five years. It's appalling enough that we would have bills with a "Section 1233" (it actually goes up to section 1905), and even more appalling that we would have a proposed law that would refuse care to those who refuse to attend such "training."

Were a private insurer to require this, I'm sure liberals would be crying bloody murder. Apparently it doesn't bother them as much when it's the government. Soylent Green as hospital food?

Homeschooling and socialization

I used to resist the NEA and AFT "logic" about homeschooling impeding the social development of children, and then it became completely obvious to me that when I was dealing with an immature adult, the best thing by far would be to put him in a room of junior high school students and let him learn proper behavior by their example.

:^)

Sadly, for some adults I've worked with, this could actually be helpful, but thankfully it's not often the case.

Teleprompters and the death of extemporaneous speaking

I caught a moment or two of Comrade Obama's weekly address this Saturday, as well as the so-called "response," and it struck me that as politicians have lost their ability to think on their feet as they've become dependent on the teleprompter. If the GOP can finally find someone to respond who can actually think on his feet, they could make Obama pay dearly for his habit of leading with his chin, rhetorically speaking.

A good example; when Obama talked about the "record-setting" deficits of his predecessor, as if he expects the GOP to pass that one by....and thanks to the teleprompter and a lack of people who can think on their feet, he was sadly right.

NFL Update

It turns out that the model for the new Lions helmet and logos was none other than Bert Lahr.

(BTW, if you want to keep Lions out of your backyard, just put up goalposts)

PS: rumors that the new Vikings logo will be modeled after Larry the Cucumber (as Lyle) have not been confirmed.