BobK

Everything is more exciting with Japanese announcers.  Skip ahead to 2:15 for my favorite part.

I confess, I stayed on the Danica bandwagon long after it seemed worthwhile. But then again, I became aware of her early on. The most interesting aspect of her story has been the incredible monkey on her back, forced to carry the hopes, dreams, and marketing aspirations of others, on top of the normal challenges facing a young driver trying to establish a career. It’s great to see her shed that.

Of course, some will say that she’s struck a blow for womanhood, I’m more inclined to say that she’ struck a blow for racing, and shown that it’s a sport where men and women can compete side by side at the highest levels. By the same token, she did win on fuel strategy, so that means that she was able to drive longer without a pit stop than the men. That’s a landmark of sorts, I suppose. Read the rest of this entry »

Back when I was living in south Florida, the Marlins were struggling to build a new ballpark, or talk somebody into building one for them. They eventually ended up striking a deal to build a typical modern stadium with an ugly retractable roof on the unspectacular site of the Orange Bowl. But one of the earlier proposals involved building at the little-used Bicentennial Park. The waterfront location would have been the perfect way to showcase Miami… when you saw a game on TV, you’d know where it was being played.

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We keep hearing about the “housing bubble,” and how rampant speculation has caused turmoil on Wall Street. But was the housing bubble a result of excess speculation, or an excess aversion to speculation?

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I suppose this was inevitable. Amtrak will start screening passengers’ carry-on bags. They’ll show up unannounced at boarding platforms with bomb-sniffing dogs and all sorts of other equipment. Lovely.

All this might be tolerable if we had a problem with terrorism on intercity trains. But I don’t think there’s ever been a serious terror incident on a long-distance train anywhere in the world. At least none come to mind. In North America, train riders have more to fear from beaver dams than from terrorists.

Which begs the question: Does Amtrak suddenly have some budget to spare? If they do, is this a good way to spend it? If not, then which government agency is paying for it?  In any case, I expect that as long as no terrorists try bringing bombs aboard trains, they’ll tell us it’s working.

Not only is this a waste of money, it’s a completely unnecessary intrusion.

With a little too much time on my hands, I prepared this chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1900, highlighting the presidents in office at each stage. It’s easy to see why Hoover gets a bad rep.

It’s dangerous to try and read too much from it; in fact, my own opinion is that our choice of Presidents is mostly a reflection of the public’s feeling about the economy, and they don’t affect its direction nearly as much as they would have us believe.  Even so, it’s interesting to see the good times and the bad times highlighted this way.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in the wake of the Mitchell report that, “Those recommendations that I can implement independently, I will do immediately.”

Unfortunately the one action that would do more good than anything else, and which he could implement independently, isn’t going to happen.

He should resign in shame.

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How is it that these sentences came to be handed out in the same state?

- After the Station nightclub fire, the two club owners were sentenced to four years and to a suspended sentence for their criminal negligence that killed 100 people and injured dozens of others. The road manager who lit the pyrotechnics in close proximity to flammable foam also got a four year sentence.

- A 29-year old mother “with a history of volunteer work — and no criminal record” who caused a drunk driving accident that killed one person was sentenced to ten years in prison.

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Seems like lots of people are upset about the idea of providing relief to homeowners who are in a difficult mortgage situation. And on the face of it, it’s wrong. Of course, we should not rescue people who overextended themselves, who bought homes they couldn’t afford. Right? Why should taxpayers bear the burden, even indirectly?

Unfortunately, it’s not so simple.

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How cool is this? Immigrant gardeners provide seed money for college scholarships.

For all the blather about immigration, here in a nutshell is the story of how great it is. A guy immigrates from Mexico, he starts a gardening business, saves his money and buys a house on the peninsula (I’m jealous already), and his son graduates from law school at Berkeley. He’s so grateful that he starts a scholarship foundation. This is an immigrant gardener. He’s still a gardener, and he’ll probably always be a gardener. And he has accomplished more than many people who started life will far more advantages.

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