We have a few ghost shrimp in my son’s fish tank.
A few days ago, I noticed one is pregnant:
Those are a bunch of greenish eggs in the abdomen. The abdomen is normally clear.
I searched the internet nad found that there’s a good chance the other fish will eat the eggs. Oh, well, no baby ghost shrimps for us!
In August, my ’97 Chevrolet Monte Carlo waned my fiscal conservatism. I must have looked at it wrong, as it came down with more problems. I already hate that car, a pathetic product of a union-starved, incompetently led corporation. It may have needed another intake manifold gasket replacement, more A/C work, and possible oil and crankshaft seal replacements.
Plus, kid #2 on the way is a convenient excuse…
You’ll be amazed: I don’t like SUVs. But now we have one. Here’s the logic:
Luggage taken on a 2 week trip with a 1 year old boy.
After research and a few test drives, we focused on the 2006-2007 Honda Pilot. We didn’t go earlier than 2006 because only 4×4 models were available.
The dealers are idiots. None seemed to know how little their SUVs are worth. The “no pressure” dealers had exorbitant, barely-negotiable pricing. All of them lie, lie, lie.
2 weeks into the search, we checked the Acura MDX. While it’s the Pilot’s corporate cousin, it’s not the same sense as GM’s chicanery, where they took an Oldsmobile 98, tweaked the outside, slapped on leather seats and other doo-dads, and called it a Cadillac Fleetwood.
To our shock, Autotrader’s MDXes listed for less than the Pilot! HUH?
After a test drive and a couple more days of looking, Jennifer found a MDX for sale by a private owner. Pictures looked great, a VIN search checked out, etc.
Long story short, we met the guy on Monday, had it inspected, and by Thursday we were at his credit union buying it from him.
So here’s the new Cambre garage mate:
I still cannot believe that these are cheaper than Pilots, and I cannot believe the deal we got.
A while back, I told my wife I would never want a “luxury car.” It just didn’t feel right. Well, we have one now. It still doesn’t feel right, but the price was right!
My local public radio, KERA 90.1 FM, does a two hour weekly music program called 90.1 At Night.
It’s awesome.
Host J. Paul Slavens dishes up a truly eclectic mix, including many Texas and local pieces. And it has little crap in the smooth jazz, Celtic, or “mood music” (tonal study?) genres.
My wife complains that I wouldn’t normally listen to many of the songs. She’s right, but it’s just different when juxtaposed so eclectically. (Is that a word?)
90.1 At Night runs every Sunday, 8 PM to 10 PM on KERA 90.1 FM in the Dallas/Ft. Worth market.
If you see this car in your rearview mirror, you won the reverse lottery!
Per today’s press release, the Texas DPS’s holiday “special concern” is “drinking and driving,” but that doesn’t stop them from a colossal revenue grab.
In 2007, at least 80%* of their holiday moving violation tickets were revenue enhancement speeding tickets. Their stated “special focus” suggests the same will happen again.
The Texas Legislature created our 70 mph rural speed limit in 1963. Now, if you can tell me what an arbitrary number, picked out of a hat 45 years ago, has to do with road safety… You get the point: NOTHING!
So, yes, fully eighty percent of TxDPS’s holiday moving violation activity is revenue enhancement. This is what passes for highway policing?
Thank you, Texas DPS: revenue first.
*80% is from speeding tickets / (total citations - seat belt violations).
Exhibit A: Moe Howard (a.k.a., Moe of The Three Stooges):
The Three Stooges (Moe is on left)
Exhibit B: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich
Is he the 4th stooge, a missing Howard brother?
We sent two Christmas cards this year. Here’s one of them:
Front of one of our 2008 Christmas cards
Inside of one of our 2008 Christmas cards
Why do I send these? What does it accomplish? What message am I sending? How could I send a more meaningful message that isn’t A. preaching to the choir or B. too preachy?
Why is this card worth a 42 cent stamp?
What am I doing that an email can’t accomplish? (Few of the people on my list don’t have email.)
Well, that’s speculation for another day. We sent these silly cards anyway on Saturday.
On or after Dec. 26, it will be time to pick up my Christmas 2009 cards when they are clearance. Will I bother?
My city councilman Sheffie Kadane did the right thing and retracted the hoax email. Here’s his message:
Dear Constituent:
I want to address an email that went out from my Council Office on Friday, December 12, which seems to have gotten a lot of attention.
It appears I’ve become the victim of an Internet hoax. The hoaxster laid out a realistic-sounding plot that carjackers were allegedly using at NorthPark Mall. And in my zeal to make sure my constituents remained safe, we quickly emailed this information around the district.
But now I’m told by police that this was a hoax that apparently has been around for years. Police say they know of no such incidents in or around NorthPark Mall this year, and while people should always be alert and aware, this is not a crime trend.
Well, I must say that I’m sorry we didn’t catch this sooner. And certainly want everyone to know we think the police and the security out at NorthPark Mall are doing a great job keeping everyone safe during the holidays.
And I also hope everyone will join me out at NorthPark Mall this weekend, because I still have quite a bit of shopping to do before Christmas!
Have a safe and blessed holiday season.
Sheffie Kadane
Councilmember, District 9
Thank you, Sheffie.
I like my city councilman, Sheffie Kadane. He’s done a good job for my district, and he has been responsive to my neighborhood’s requests.
But his staff screwed up. Last Friday, they sent an obvious mail hoax to all District 9 community leaders, falsely alleging that a local TV station reported on a North Park Mall carjacking scheme.
I was the first to tell him it’s a hoax. His staff didn’t budge.
Amidst their refusal to retract and increasingly bizarre justifications, I tipped off Allen Gwinn, publisher of Dallas.org. That resulted in this article: Council Member’s Carjacking Email Debunked.
Responsible government should never mislead constituents. Attention to issues is already scarce; it’s terrible to waste it on a confirmed hoax!
I have no problem retracting misstatements. Nothing less is acceptable from a public leader.
Why was that so hard for Sheffie’s office? Does pride trump the truth?
Update: it’s hitting the Dallas blogosphrere:
All they had to do is retract it!
Well-done, poignant reminder of the point of Christmas, without being preachy.
THANK YOU to the Senate for killing the automaker union bailout.
Yes, union bailout. Unions are mostly behind the domestic auto industry’s failure. They literally killed the “goose that laid the golden egg” by forcing salaries almost 60% more than PhD college professors!
$160K total compensation for repetitive, assembly line work.
This bailout is–literally–leftist Congressmen buying votes from their leftist union friends. A few supposed conservatives jumped on for flaky reasons, including “my district needs a bailout, too”; paranoia of economic apocalypse; and because they fear unionized constituents.
Generations of automaker management have failed to convert their supposed vision into quality products. That’s partly why domestics have made crap cars for decades.
But if vision is currency, unions are the eyeball gougers. When unions guzzle so much revenue, what’s left but scraps? What funds innovation? Management’s #1 fault is playing nice with unions.
Did the Senate kill the union bailout? Perhaps, but, again, the unions caused the failure: they stubbornly refused meaningful compensation concessions. Senate Republicans demanded they drop wages to PhD college professor-levels instead of medical doctor levels. Either way, union members would still be overpaid for turning a screwdriver all day.
I hope this debate causes a colossal shift in union legitimacy.
Unions have their place. I support them when they rise against bona fide workplace abuses.
But when become institutionalized, when their purpose is a monopoly on labor, when they violate our Constitutional right to free association (“closed shop”), unions are a strategic blunder. They shift broad economic focus from what makes the United States special–innovation–and instead try make us like every other gray, socialist or communist country–artificial wage inflation. That’s why domestic automakers are failing–unions converted them from innovators into a socialist jobs program.
It’s time for the auto unions to go. If the foreign automakers’ non-union employees are so highly paid, then domestics can pull it off, too.
One last note: Nancy Pelosi claims we’re playing “Russian roulette” by not bailing out her union buddies. In fact, any Russian roulette is when the bailout debt causes future inflationary pressure.
