Blog of the week: The Robject

I have plenty to write about from the trip but I may not be able to get to it for a coulple of days. In the meantime imagine giving away more than 30% of your income to charity. It's hard for me to imagine, too.

A friend is doing it for 12 months. To learn more read about therobject.

Nepali guilt

On Monday I picked up my laundry from the Nepali's that press my shirts. They charge $.40 per shirt and and give me a discount to $.25/shirt. It's a good business practice to make the customer think he's getting a good deal. I always leave a tip well over the $.35 price so they must think I'm crazy.
Today I had a huge order to pick up (19 shirts) and the bill was half of what it should have been. I paid the price and said, I'd like to leave a tip. He said, "Oh thank you sir

Ready... set...

I'm leaving absolutely ridiculously early for the airport. I'll arrive about four hours before my flight leaves. With my luck it seems like the right thing to do.

I'm looking forward to Atlanta's predicted high of 83 on Wednesday. The summer is in full blast here and the lows are higher than 83.

I had planned to write a series of blog posts to appear over the next two days and, well, it didn't happen.

Will work for cake

I'm glad the students gave me the giant Coke cake. For now that's all I'm getting.

I went to payroll to find out how much and when I'd be paid.

Payroll clerk: Which college are you in?
Me: Business and Economics
Payroll clerk: There is no pay for Dr.'s in Business.
Me: What?
Payroll Clerk: The college has not sent us the documents telling us who taught during the summer.
Me: So nobody in the college of Business and Economics is getting paid for summer school?
Payroll Clerk: Not until we get the documentation.

I know this will all get worked and I'm not concerned about whether I'll get paid, just when. I would have liked to have had this pay before coming home.

While others may feel like they work peanuts. I, apparently, work for cake.

Thought for the day - Hillary

I'm trying to grade while watching Hillary on Sunday's Meet The Press. (So much for focus.)

She's impressive. It reminded me of why I supported her early on before I switched to Obama. I can only wonder, however, how the health care debate might be different if Hillary were still in the senate. More than one news story made it clear that one of the reasons she accepted the Secretary of State offer was that her colleagues in the senate weren't willing to give her a position of power. In this health care fight Baucus and Dodd may be heavyweights within the senate but they certainly don't hold the firepower (or lightning rod) of Clinton.

I do wonder how this would be playing out if she were still a senator.

Update: Yep, can't focus. I forgot to mention that during the campaign Hillary's plan was better than Obama's. I won't bore you with details but this issue alone almost made me support her.

Management

The B McG dropped off his painting crew and they went right to work. Well, 2 of them did. One, who appears to be McG's right hand man sat in a chair pretty much the entire time and watched. He barked out a few orders that the others followed dutifully. I guess lazy management is one of those universal truths.

After they got done they waited for McG to return. I cleared off the couch and chairs but they would only sit on the floor or dining chairs. They were very happy, however to take Cokes. After the B McG arrived I asked how much he wants for painting the room, rewiring my cable and custom fitting sheet metal for my dishwasher. He starts talking with the guys. They talked for what seemed like five minutes with the workers' eyes frequently darting my way.

It went on long enough that I said, "I'm going to step out while you guys decide this." I walked towards the kitchen when McG said something I heard as, "b-da-b 2500." (2500 dirhams is about $700. ) I asked him to repeat that. Again he said "b-da-b 2500." He saw the look of panic in my face so he started to explain that with metal he had cut and the supplies for the paint rollers and everything it really is 500.

"500!" I exclaimed, "I thought you were asking for 2500!" What I heard as "b-da-b 2500" was him saying "With the dishwasher, too, 500."

We laughed, I paid him 700, gave them a bunch of Cokes and they were on their way.

Imagine asking someone to custom make a top for your dishwasher, rewire your cable and paint a large room and getting a bill for $125. Tipping them $50 seems like too little in retrospect.

OK, I HAVE TO GO BACK TO GRADING. IN 24 HOURS I'LL BE SITTING IN THE DUBAI AIRPORT AND I HAVEN'T FINISHED GRADING. FOCUS, STEVEN, FOCUS.

Alone. All alone.

My British friends I was plant-sitting for have gone to Beirut. Mike is working long hours in Dubai meaning I'm all alone in my last 24 hours in Al Ain. Shiver.

Nah, actually, I'm on pace to get all the grading done and grades entered by midnight or a little later. Right now I'm a little distracted because the guys have returned to finish painting my front room. I'd rather not have them here while I'm trying grade finals but I was put off so many times I'll take it when I can get it.

I need to try to remain focused for the next few hours . That's never easy for me. If I were to suddenly lose my internet connection right now that would probably be a good thing.

18 minutes

I arrived at school to administer my last final and realized I had left it back in the apartment. I flew home and made it back in 18 minutes. I walked in the classroom at 9:59 for a 10AM final.

One of things I like about living here is that on the trip to my apartment and back I was able to... let's just say, move quickly. The difference is that in the US I'd have been panicking about a possible cop catching me. Here I know there are no speed cameras between my apartment and the school.

BTW, as fast as I was going I was still passed by a Mercedes.

Quote of the day - Economists are charlatans

Today British economists apologized to the Queen for not predicting the credit crisis. Good for them. I won't hold my breath waiting for Wall St. economists to apologize.

From the Huffinton Post story one reader made this comment:

Economics is the most useless subject taught in college. They should change macro and micro economics into a study of historical economic events. Mathematicizing the subject gives the illusion that it is rigorous and scientific - it is neither. The subject has become the refuge of charlatans. 100% of all economists are charlatans!

I'm glad I majored in economics. It develops a way of thinking about the world... but I have to admit there's a bit of truth in the statement.

The power of youtube

This video is so popular it has made the song they are dancing to rise to number seven in I-tunes download list. I saw the couple on the Today Show. They are lovin’ the attention.

From now on couples not only have to plan the wedding, reception, and honeymoon, they also have to figure out how to do something crazy enough to make youtube.

The video is pure fun. I enjoy a glimpse of their old photographer. He had to be thinking, "How in the hell do I capture this in pictures?" This is a case where you really gotta see the video.

I don't like it when I don't get it

This comes from Andrew Sullivan's site. It's supposedly a cool ad that will take a minute to understand. Apparently I'm slow.

At least there was the cake

I spoke with several people before I finally reached the clerk that handles payroll. My pay will be processed on Wednesday, en shala, or Thursday. I leave for the US on Tuesday.

So how much will I be getting paid? "Oh we haven't calculated that yet."

Just a note

It's midnight here. I took the garbage to the dumpster and thought, "ohmygodthisisfuckinghot"

Yep. No capitalization, spaces, or periods. It's that hot.

I'm ready to come home.

Weekend remainders - the psychology edition

Very enlightening: For people with low self esteem saying daily affirmations has a negative effect. Andrew Sullivan finds experts who claim low self esteem is good for you.

Meanwhile, having more competitors makes a person less competitive.

According to evolutionofgod.net the notion of heaven came long after Christ died. It was initially referred to as the Kingdom of God (here on earth). But with every passing generation the Kingdom of God (on earth) seemed less likely so they created heaven. The website has an interesting history of the world's religions.

"I'm scared of the private sector!" seems to be what most Arabs are saying. Across the middle east Arabs would rather be unemployed than to take a private sector job. Working for the government pays better and is considered much safer. Hmm, I'll bet that's a growing feeling in the US, too.

Meghan McCain asks, "Does it sound campy to say I love gay men?" I think the better question is whether or not her father would have been any better at ending "Don't ask, Don't tell."

National Republican chair Michael Steele says he'll woo minorities with "Fried chicken and potato salad."

I know it's a problem when your girlfriend is having sex with a Republican state representative who is also Sunday school teacher... who also "loudly opposes allowing gay couples to adopt and is a firm opponent of sex outside of marriage -- except his own." Just be sure not to ask for too much money or he might go to the cops.

I gotta remember to do these each week. There's just too many when I wait two weeks.

Update: I should have mentioned that the state rep. is 47 and his mistress is 22. He probably won't get reelected but he'll get high-fives in the locker room.

Update II: Very appropriate for the psychology edition... I'd like to think that if I were an Alaskan blogger I'd be writing this about my fellow conservative Alaskan bloggers who realized their governor was nuts.

Fascinating weather...

... in Iowa, of course. Here it's just frickin' hot. A couple of days ago we did get a sandstorm with some thunder. I was so excited I had to run out into it. It ruined my contacts and all I was able to see was some low hanging scud. <--but that's the closest thing I've seen to a cloud in months. The chart above is the National Weather Service prediction for temperatures from July 30 - August 3. As you can see Iowa has a 60% chance of being below normal. I'm glad my arrival didn't curse the weather like I did in January.

This shows the daily temperatures for Cedar Rapids. If the cool weather persists for the rest of the month it will be the first month (I can find) where we did not hit the normal high even once. In fact, CR hasn't reached a normal high since hitting 91 on June 27th.

I am very excited that it is going to be cool upon my return. I was convinced that we'd have a hot, sticky August like we so often have. The idea of spending time outside has made me even consider camping. It won't happen but at least I've been thinking about it.

PLUS: The NWS is reporting the return of el nino. Stop yawning. Here's one positive effect from a news article from the 1997 el nino:

According to Scheeringa, the El Nino weather pattern could bring unusually warm and dry weather to the Midwest, especially in the winter months.

Warm and dry sounds pretty good right now, doesn't it?

It's like a fireman...

I'm not sure the ad is real, but it is more believable if you see the TV ad.

I'm not sure I'll think of firemen or heartburn the same way again.

Finally, a bacon product I don't want

It is described as: "Corn on the cob wrapped in hickory bacon with two hot dogs and two Colby-Jack cheese sticks wrapped in ground beef."

Indian food

Since I won't be getting great Indian food while I'm back in Iowa I decided to indulge. From left to right its rita(sp?), mutton in a spicy gravy, garlic naan(bread) and incredibly good spring rolls. I ordered a second helping of the spring rolls.

There may be good Indian restaurants in E. Iowa. (I've heard good things about one in Iowa City.) During my time back I have too many other plans to waste time on something I can get here.

I have to go back downtown tomorrow to buy paint so I'll probably stop back for some more spring rolls.

Fly-unders

Sorry for the picture quality. This is an underpass. It's used in this city to allow traffic to avoid a busy intersection. Imagine the First Ave. and Collins Road intersection (the busiest in CR). If the First Avenue traffic were allowed to simply drive underneath the intersection there'd be few traffic jams. I love the fly-unders. I live 15 miles from the heart of downtown but thanks to the fly-unders I can make it there in 20 minutes. I can get to the opposite end of the city in less than 30.

Facebook message of the day

I'm hoping to see a friend and former housemate in Des Moines while I'm back. He sent his new phone number with this request:

Please don't give it to any male unattractive stalkers. Or hermaphrodite attractive or unattractive stalkers, or pre-op tranies. Anyone else is A-OK.

Soon this guy will be making a multiple of my salary. I'm just glad to know him on the way up.

Update: If there are any female unattractive stalkers out there please let me know. I will happily forward Matt's phone number. He's straight so if you stalked in the right way you might just have a chance.

Arrested for breaking into his home - Part II

There's a reason Talking Points Memo is in my blog roll on the right: Josh Marshall is a great writer and often says what I think in a way better than I can. This issue is another example:

Here are some salient facts. The house was Gates' house. From what I understand, no one disputes that prior to his arrest and while in the house, Gates provided proof that the house was his. When you have those facts and the guy whose house it is ends up getting arrested, I think that's prima facie evidence of bad police work.

We certainly can't know it was racism. And perhaps there are extraordinary facts that would show the arrest was proper -- that all the escalation came from Gates, was unwarranted and left the officer no choice but to arrest him. But I think the assumption has to be that the officer mishandled the situation. Because we hire the police to protect us from burglars breaking into our homes, not to arrest us in our own homes if we get a little miffed at being mistaken for burglars. Police are trained to prevent situations like that from escalating. They're professionals.

In the case of this cop I'd say that they are supposed to be professionals. Even if I believed every word of his police report I think the guy should be fired or at least "reassigned." Let's say Gates had a major hissy fit calling the cop racist. He was standing on his property in his own home. He has a first amendment right to speak his mind AND since he was doing it on his own property it's a stretch to say he was inciting violence.

This is a cop on a power trip. He needs to become a rent-a-cop. We expect them to be on power trips.

BYE BYE STEVEN

My students surprised me today with a giant cake shaped like a can of Coke Zero.

After they gave it to me I rushed home to get my camera and measuring tape. The cake is 34" long, 20" wide and 14" tall. I've seen many wedding cakes that were smaller.

The top pic hides the 3D effect. They used many layers to create the rounded can look. I counted 13 layers of chocolate or vanilla cake with whipped frosting in between.

Other students also brought food and it was quite a feast.

They had kept it all a secret and it made my summer. I don't even care if get paid (because I still haven't.)

The formality of writing BYE BYE STEVEN was a bit disconcerting.  I said, “I am coming back!  Or do you know something I should know?”

Stuff to take home

I'm beginning to pack. Here's a list of stuff I plan to bring back to the US:

• Freshly picked dates
• Dates with almonds in them
• Toys for the new great nephew (including the oddly phallic camel above)
• Dubai T-shirts
• Doggy bowl stand I won way back in February

Hmmm. Not much to bring home.

Stuff to bring from home

It's time to start thinking of what stuff I want to bring back here from America.

• Cinnamon scope
• Computer
• Camera
• King size eggshell cushion
• Many boxes of Mac & Cheese
  
• Popcorn
• Polo's
• Fatman pants

"Can you keep a secret?"

The answer is obviously "no" since I'm blogging about it.

A former Hamilton student contacted me on Facebook to tell me that she secretly had a crush on me while in my classes.

In situations like this I have absolutely no idea how to respond. This case was even more awkward because my gut reaction was to write back, "So using your 13 year old son as a lure to bring your 18 year old male classmates to your place to play video games was... what?"

Instead, I played dumb. I thanked her, asked about Iowa weather and found an excuse to get offline as soon as possible.

Arrested for breaking into his home

A black Harvard professor was arrested after an altercation with a police officer who was investigating a possible break-in.

Read the story here.

Read the police report here.

If you don't care to comment on the blog send me your thoughts:
stevekranz@aol.com

I'll comment tomorrow.

RIP Gidget

I wouldn't normally use the blog to comment on an ugly dog used in commercials BUT I live in a country with ONE Taco Bell (in Dubai). They were supposed to open one in my city but as a cruel joke they pulled out.

Getting Fat(ter) for no good reason

McDonalds is running a promotion of giving away a Coke glass with each purchase of a Super Size meal.The problem is that the glasses are ugly and small.

Hence I've only made a dozen trips. (I broke one that's why there's only 11 up there.)

Now if they were giving away a glass like the one to the left that would be worth getting fat(ter) for.

Wooing Sanford

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
To Sir, With Love
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

The media was willing to anything it could to get Mark Sanford to give them an exclusive. 

*****
If you are able to watch this, it is the first Comedy Central clip I’ve been able to successful add to the blog.  Hopefully this is a start of great things to come.

Seven days

At this time next week I'll be sitting in the Dubai airport. I will be very busy wrapping up the classes over the next couple of days. I'm ready to be done and by the expression on my students' faces they are as anxious as me.

We were supposed to get paid yesterday or today but weren't. I'm not concerned about getting paid; unlike some employers in this country I know the money will be coming. What's frustrating is that I have no idea how much money is coming.

*****
Here's some weather trivia for you: Cedar Rapids has not hit a normal high once in the month of July and by the looks of the forecast it may go the rest of the month below the normal 85 degree high. This will be one of the coolest Ragbrai's in history. Here's a map with pics of Ragbrai.

The NWS says the cool weather will continue for August. Hallelujah! I need it.

Great Nike commercial

This came to from a friend who reports that the blond in this commercial was one of her sorority sister.

Wholesome Coca-Cola produced this?

And here’s another I doubt we’ll see on American TV or in the middle east:

I can’t imagine this is good marketing.  How many people are going to want to drink Sprite if they associate it with jizz?  Ok, a kinky niche market may start spraying it on themselves but for the majority I can’t see this as appealing.

Quote of the day

Here's a quote from a GQ article:

"In the beginning, when Kayla and Emily asked these boys for naked pictures, the majority of them thought little of saying yes. This exchange was within the range of what kids—lots of kids—consider normal. Online, a boy chats with a girl he's never met. Pants go down. Pictures are sent. And a chain of unpredictable, unknowable consequences is set in motion."

A guy went to a large high school. He created a female persona on a Facebook and flirted with at least 50 of his male classmates. He got thirty of them to send naked pictures. He then used the pictures as blackmail and seven agreed to have sex with him.

Now the kid is facing 253 years in prison, but will likely be plea bargained down to much less because nobody wants to take the stand. The court kept his victims' identities "secret" by publishing only the initials and birthdates. Thanks to Facebook, it took no time to figure out who the victims were.

Wow. On so many levels, wow.

"Dutch treat" or "The American system"

In the US if a group gathers for lunch and everyone pays their own way we call that going "Dutch." Here, I have learned, it is called "the American system."

Huh?

My Arab friends have explained that it is traditional to argue over who gets to pay in this culture. If they agree ahead of time that each will pay their own way they call it the American system. It's kind of a slam... a fellow Arab would offer to buy your meal but if you dined with an American he wouldn't.

Hmm. I don't like the implications of the phrase. It reinforces the stereotype that Americans only look out for themselves.

And I sincerely apologize to the Dutch. It took having the practice be called the American system before I realized it was an insult.

Then again, I was in grad school before I realized that to "Jew someone down" on a price was a negative stereotype. I just thought it meant the person was good at bargaining!

Training plants

A couple left a month ago and entrusted me with their plants. They did this knowing that I had killed one of the plants they had given me. Well, they are back tomorrow and the plants are alive and well.

Contrary to some negative comments I did remember to mist them them every day. It was like having these plants was a test run for getting some of my own. When I come back in September I kick off the training wheels and try again.

Chickens

Imagine seeing chickens on the lawn near the shopping mall. It's not a common sight here but it's not a first. Ten feet to the left of this picture is a ridiculously busy street.

Apparently the chickens have learned it's better to not cross the road.

Views from the roof

The negative of living in the boonies is, well, living in the boonies. Nothing was more than a ten minute drive from the crappy apartment. Now I have to add ten minutes. The positive is that I drive next to the desert on most days. And like those living in Colorado I'm sure I'll eventually not even notice it but every day I look to my right and say, "That's cool."

While I was on the roof I took this pic of my apartment. My front room is the two large windows on the second floor. I'm writing this from my computer located between those two windows. My car is at the lower right. Parallel parking is easy when I get the first parking spot.

Tweet of the day - Grassley

Chuck is not happy about the President's speech on healthcare:

Obama speech on healthCareReform Absolutely nothing new Waste of time saying we are going to get that done Baucus and I know that But doRITE

While I do believe Grassley is serious about trying to reach a health bill he could vote for I think the chance of that actually happening is just above zero.

Democrats have an option called "Reconciliation" which will means they won't need 60 votes in the senate. If this bill has any chance to pass, this is how it will likely to happen. Those who want delay are hoping that when senators go home for August recess they will hear outrage from their constituents and vote against the bill when they come back.

Plant killer

Ann gave me this plant stand for the hall in front of my door. The problem is that the temperatures in the hall stay above 100 pretty much all the time.

It killed two plants quickly. My neighbor said she had some plants that could withstand the heat. They lasted a couple of weeks.

I'm now looking for a fake plant.

Blog of the week - How I got laid off

It's not surprising that many blogs have been started to collect stories of the economic crisis. How I got laid off allows people to write up their stories and submit them.

Some stories are heartbreaking: Mid-fifties, diagnosed with cancer and losing job and health insurance. Some are irritating: Calling the boss "Miss Piggy" in order to get fired.

How many workers does it take to install cable?

The answer: Five. They arrived in a tiny pickup and went straight to work. Since I live in the boonies cable doesn't make it here so they used a satellite hookup. Thanks to the construction of my place they had to drill several holes and snake the cable through the walls. Work was done in 20 minutes. I went to get them money for a tip and grab a couple of Cokes... because, you know, people have a Coke and a smile. (Unlike deadly Pepsi.) Before I could get it to them they were gone.

*****
A baseball cap with a towel on the head may look stupid but it's the common dress for those who work outside. Minimizing any exposure to the sun is the goal.

Pepsi killed Michael Jackson

The Today Show is speculating right now that Michael Jackson's drug addiction began after the "hair on fire" accident while shooting a Pepsi ad in 1984.

Just in case you need more reason to avoid Pepsi...

Today's definition of lazy

It's a good thing I teach for four hours a day or this would be the laziest summer of my life.

The other night I had my only two friends still in the city over for dinner. Afterwards I thought, "Oh, the maid is coming tomorrow. She can do the dishes."

Right now I have 3 Bangladeshi's painting my wall. I've had the paint for weeks and certainly had enough time to do it myself. But, nah, why do work yourself when you can exploit hire cheap labor to do it.

In my defense I have paid these guys 150% - 200% of their asking price on previous projects so I know they don't feel exploited...

Now if I could only find someone to write and grade my tests I could do this gig for decades.

Air conditioning

One of the better ideas here is separate air conditioners per room. It makes it easy to leave the unused rooms hot.

I particularly like the individual remotes in each room.

Nothing adds to laziness like being able to lay on the couch with TV, cable, and air conditioning remotes.

Cost of electricity

It's the middle of summer. Highs are in the mid-80's and it's often pretty humid in Iowa. Most of us run our air during the summer. The real debate is how often to run it.

Consider how much you use your air conditioner and what temperature you set it at.

Now consider how much you'd use it if electricity costs were 1/8th of what they are now.

I pay about 40% of the price of electricity as I would in the US. Emiraties pay 12% of the American bill. So a $100 electric bill in the US would be $12 for them and $40 for me.

I still try to conserve and only run the air in my front room and bedroom - leaving half of my apartment in the nineties. If I paid American prices I'm sure I'd conserve more.
With cheap electricity it's common to see doors wide open. 110+ and doors wide open. These doors can't be closed. They're held open mechanically.

Free dinner

Anyone who can follow these directions for folding a shirt AND be able to explain it to me deserves a free dinner. 

I’m only paying out if I can actually fold a shirt that easily.  In other words, payout is unlikely.

McDonald's breakfast

Breakfast is not a big deal in this country. None of the major restaurants have a breakfast menu... until now. Conflicting thoughts: "Life in the Emirates just got a little better" and "Oh, this is the last thing I need..."

The Egg McMuffin (not like the Big Mac) tastes identical to what's served in the US. Given that it's not pork I can't believe how much the ham tastes like pork ham.

The coffee, however, is like most coffee in this country: Barely drinkable.

This McDonalds is classy. In addition to flowers on the table they have a kids room with TV monitors playing Tom & Jerry cartoons non-stop and the wait staff comes out to refill your coffee and take any additional orders you might have.

It's one of the few places that actually gives good customer service and the workers are not allowed to accept tips.

Linda the homewrecker

San Francisco (not surprisingly) is home to two gay penguins - Harry & Pepper. The couple has been together since 2003 and have even raised a chick of their own.

Linda's spouse died and she became the widow on the prowl. She set her sights on Harry… who happily jumped nests leaving Pepper out in the cold.

It is not known if Harry was really attracted to Linda or if he just wanted to be a father again. Pepper, however, is pissed. He got violent and had to be separated. Now they are all back together but no word if they are on squawking terms.

Here’s a video explaining Harry & Pepper's parenting skills before that hussy Linda came along:

Which is worse?

In college I started writing questions of life. The post above reminded me of this one:

Which is worse: If your partner leaves you for someone of the same sex or opposite sex?

Most straight friends answered that it would upset them more if they were dumped by an opposite sex partner. Meaning, "I obviously don't have the right equipment so I shouldn't get worked up."

One friend said she'd be much more upset if a boyfriend left her for a man. "Leaving me for another woman I could understand. Maybe she's got bigger boobs or is nicer, but leaving me for a man would mean our whole relationship was a lie."

Gay friends weren't bothered by the notion of being dumped for a woman. "Anyone can play for the other team for a while. He'll be back."

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to run this one past any lesbians.

Rico Suave

I just realized I've been walking around all day with my shirt unbuttoned one more than would ever be acceptable in the US. Only guys wearing lots of gold chains would have it unbuttoned that far.

But here it's more than acceptable, it's common. So my shorts have to cover my knees but my shirt can be open like a gigalo.

It might take some time to adjust when I get back to the states.

Cool summer

It's been a cool spring and summer in Iowa. I've heard the sweet corn is running behind. Besides a six day heat wave in late June highs have not hit the normal for the year. So far three days in July have not reached a high of 70. Amazing.

Likewise, it's been cooler than expected here for the past two weeks. A layer of haze sat on top of us obscuring the sun. It kept highs down to 109. Yippee! Well, the haze has moved on and today it's 120. I haven't seen a real cloud in months. I've been singing "Blue skies, smiling at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see." But really the skies aren't blue here. They're a pasty white. The line "Never saw the sun shining so bright" is dead on.

The face of Young Republicans

Audra Shay is a Republican activist in Louisiana.

A week ago a friend Eric wrote on her Facebook wall:

“It’s the government making us commies… can’t even smoke in my damn car… whats next they going to issue toilet paper once a month… tell us how to wipe our asses…”

Two minutes later he added this:

“Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist… Muslim is on there side [sic]… need to take this country back from all of these mad coons… and illegals.”

Ms. Shay responded, "You tell em Eric!"

Two fellow Republicans pointed out that this is a racial slur and Ms. Shay's response was to delete them as friends.

Yesterday the 38 year old was elected the new president of the Young Republicans. Even Megan McCain begged the Young Republicans to elect someone else.

Update: The story of the election is pretty good. The forces of evil used intimidation and scare tactics worthy of the greats of their party. Rove and the late Lee Atwater can be proud. My favorite part: The Shay group denied a secret ballot. The same thing they insist on for unions.

One delegate said this vote set the party back 30 years. Nah, they've been on this road for years.

Update II: Ooops. I meant to include the link to the election news story.

“We’ll crown your favorite hot chick in August!”

Carl’s Jr./Hardees invites people young women to show off their slutty creative side.  Given that the promo ad above includes the not-so-subtle sucking finger bit I can’t imagine how naughty the submissions will become.  Given their target audience this is probably a brilliant move.

How will Burger King top this?  I’m scared the creepy King is gonna start showing some skin.

Obama Derangement Syndrome

The caption:

The object of the game is to destroy American capitalism by having the government take over everything. Wanna play? No? Too bad, you are already playing. And in this game, nobody wins.

A sight to behold

The Coke fridge is up and running. It keeps stuff very cold.

I know... I know... you never thought it possible but right now you kinda wish you were me.

Weekend remainders

It's been a while so there are a lot. I hope you find at least one story worth clicking on.

Miss a few credit card payments and you might be able to convince the bank to accept 50% on the total debt you owe as payment in full. It will hurt your credit score but it is a way to get the debt out of the way.

Cynthia Davis, a Missouri state representative. thinks cutting the school lunch program for poor children is a good idea because hunger is a motivator. Colbert likes the idea and asks his followers to take food away from Ms. Davis to provide her an incentive to run for higher office.

Disturbing: Broke states are closing rest areas to save money. Speaking of broke states, here's a list I'm glad to not see Iowa on: The top ten most broke states.

The wink that changed the world. When Hungary went rogue twenty years ago and started allowing democratic reforms their eastern europe allies were ready to invade to restore order. All Hungary's leader needed was a wink from Gorbachev to stand his ground. He got it and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc was underway.

I plan to do as much grilling as possible while I'm back home. This article on grilling suggests skirt steaks are the best. While the picture above is not appealing I do find the cilantro goop recipe intriguing.

Married, happy and fat. That's what a new study says. The longer a person is married the more likely they are to gain weight. Same for co-habitating women. They gain weight but their boyfriends do not. I wish I had an excuse for my weight gain.

And finally, all those hours playing video games may actually have been good for you. Phew! Now I need to go play Age of Empires II. It's been over 24 hours since I last played and it's an addiction like coffee in the morning.

I have avoided buying a Wii or XBox. I'm ridiculously addicted to a lame game like AoEII. If I had a real game console I'd never get anything done. I've had students who were walking zombies because they stayed up all night playing Halo. And that's why doing cocaine and playing Halo are two things I must never do... because if I start I'm sure you'd never hear from me again.

A paid non-economist economist

The Atlantic employs a blogger to write about the economy. She's not an economist and she's often just plain full of shit. (I know, that's the pot calling the kettle "black" but, 1. I'm not paid to write about the economy and 2. when I do write about the economy I try not to base policy critiques on personal anecdotes.) Her latest idea is to kill worker retraining programs for older people and to give incentives to companies to train workers.

The first part is cold hearted. It is saying, "You worked in a factory for 25 years and lost your job through no fault of your own. You are in your 50's and have no good prospects for a job. You are not worth retraining."

The second part sounds reasonable until it's applied. Companies will suddenly require extensive training for jobs that never required training before... just to get the subsidy. The training will likely be lame and include lots of on-the-job training which simply means the worker is doing the job with a part of his paycheck coming from the government and not the company.

Republicans had a similar idea for a sub-minimum wage in the 1990's. Allow McDonalds to pay workers less than the minimum wage for 3 or six months to encourage them to train new workers. It takes a day to train someone to flip burgers so employers would hire 16 year-olds at lower wages, employ them to work for six months, and cut their hours once they had to pay them more.

I'm not trying to start a flame war with a professional blogger. It's simply disappointing that The Atlantic - home of world #1 blogger (Andrew Sullivan) and one of the best political reporters (Marc Ambinder) - can't get a better blogger on economics.

Dubai's growth

A friend sent a link showing the ridiculous growth in Dubai. The 18 or so cranes you can see in the picture above is proof that the city was growing faster than anyone could reasonably expect.

Perhaps the greatest act of hubris was building islands in the Gulf. Most of the housing built on the island was paid for by speculators hoping to flip it. According to rumors less than 1 in 10 of the completed housing units are occupied. (There are no official numbers, of course.)

It is worth noting however that every project they show for the "future" of Dubai has been canceled or indefinitely postponed.
There will be no super huge glass encased ski resort surrounded by the desert... There will be no kilometer tall building...

Some here chuckle at the demise of Dubai. It makes me sad. Dubai is trying to build attractions/tourism and a strong financial sector independent of oil money. In the long run that's a good thing.

Claim: Stimulus made economy worse

A conservative friend who reads conservative websites sent me a story about the stimulus. The article claims unemployment is higher than if the government had not done any stimulus at all. The reasoning is that the predictions made in January of the effect of the stimulus were off. True. The administration was overly optimistic.

The article then points to the predictions for the economy made back then if there was no stimulus. Today's economy is worse than the prediction of what would happen with no stimulus. Therefore, the stimulus made the economy worse.

If you find that confusing I don't blame you. I had to read it twice to wrap my head around it.

Oscar Meyer dead

Perhaps the most famous ad from my childhood:

Today’s news that Oscar Mayer died at the age of 95 was surprising.  Oscar Meyer was still alive?

Being the political geek I was at a young age I remember a fifth grade field trip where the bus sang a slightly different version of the song:

My baloney has a first name: It’s J-I-M-M-Y.
My baloney has a second name: It’s C-A-R-T-R
Oh, I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I’ll say, “Cause Jimmy Carter has a way of screwing up the USA!”

Blog comments

Last week the blog attracted a nutcase spook supposedly 22 year CIA agent.  I write this blog for family and friends and have no desire to engage in debate with a guy who needs to know the “context” of a comment calling for another terrorist attack. 

I restricted access to only those with a Blogger ID.  Most websites require some form of registration for people make comments.  I wanted to avoid that but lately the “Anonymous” comments have been nutty. 

I have restored the ability to make anonymous comments because some have trouble with the registration of blogger.  My request:  Even if you make a comment without signing in please sign some form of your name within the comment.

In a nearly a year of running the blog I have deleted only one comment – and that was guy trying to spam.  I don’t plan to start deleting and I hope I don’t have to.

RA

I talked for a long time with a former student who is going to be a resident assistant this fall. The most shocking news to me was his pay is $800 per semester. "That's less than I made doing the job 20 years ago!" I said.

"They raised the pay," he explained. "Last year it was $550."

This student (non-Emirati) will take what he can get. Last year he worked in the library for $3.50/hour.

So I have one former student making $84,000 for doing nothing and another making half the US minimum wage. And the most remarkable thing is that there is no resentment. I gave the guy every opportunity to complain and he didn't. He took the line that everyone here seems to take: It is what it is.

The external locus of control that this entire society has adopted is absolutely fascinating.

Why couldn't he be a congressman from Alabama?

It is most unfortunate that one of the nuttiest congressmen happens to be from our state. Congressman Steve King was the only person to vote against a resolution acknowledging that the capitol was built by slave labor.

Steve seems to want the crown - the King - of crazy. He'll have to work hard for the title given the queen of crazy - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman. Her latest rant to refuse to fill out the census form led fellow GOP'ers to rebuke her.

How does the upper midwest get to be home to the two most batshit crazies in the House?

Obama's Katrina

First the VP says,

"We misread how bad the economy was."

Two days later the president corrects him by saying,

"I would actually -- rather than say 'misread' we had incomplete information."

He's technically correct, but this is disingenuous. The absolute jaw dropping bad economic news was not 100% confirmed when the stimulus was proposed, but it was a speeding train headed for a cliff. There was no question where it was going.

As a long time reader of Krugman he was sounding the alarm for so long that many dismissed him as the economist who cried wolf. When it became clear that the Nobel Laureate was right the new White House refused to believe how right he was. They threw up a "bipartisan" stimulus that was akin to giving aspirin for a broken leg.

Now they've spent all the political capital they have on this issue and are suddenly realizing they fucked up.

They might as well have hung a "Mission Accomplished" sign behind Obama when he signed the stimulus package.

Ugh. Maybe this is the real reason I haven't been blogging about the economy: My team is pulling a Katrina.

Quote of the day - banning people from the mall

In December a new mall opened in my city. It's closer to the part of town where the laborers live and now that mall has banned those laborers from entering. An article in the newspaper gives plenty of quotes in support of the ban and interviews a laborer who said, "A ban like this makes us feel subhuman."

Of course, I find the ban appalling and there's no way I'll go there as long as the ban is in effect.

As I kept reading I saw that if a Saudi guy had his way I wouldn't be able to use the mall, either:

"In Saudi Arabia, single men are not allowed inside the mall on weekends and the evenings at all regardless of what class they are or what country they come from... I think the mall should ban entry to anyone who comes here without his family so as not to be branded as racist."

He's right that it's not racism but what should his idea be called?

Besides "stupid."

Big Shot

There was a small chance I could have made this funny. Very small. After two hours of believing I had lost $6000 my mind is mush. I seriously considered deleting my post about Sarah Palin in three acts and pretending it never existed.

Alas, I have decided to my lumps and just admit this is lame. It's more than lame, only a die-hard Billy Joel fan like Sandy would understand the references. So let's just get it over.

Of all the odd Sarah Palin facts one that sticks with me is that she attended five college before getting a four year degree. Having taught at Hamilton I've met many students for whom college was a second or third try. I remember one who attended four colleges. In 2000+ students during my time at Hamilton nobody had gone through 5 colleges. Act one:

Watching Sarah Palin reminds of the lines, “So here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice. With loaded guns in your face you have to deal with pressure.”

And her press conference on Friday reminded me of Big Shot:

Key lyrics:

Well, you went uptown ridin' in your limousine
With your fine Park Avenue clothes

Because you had to be a big shot, didn't cha
You had to open up your mouth
You had to be a big shot, didn't cha
All your friends were so knocked out

You had to have the last word, last night
You know what everything's about

You had to have a white hot spotlight

You had to have the front page, bold type

Well, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in
If you know when to leave it alone
But you went over the line
You couldn't see it was time to go home
No, no, no, no, no, no

Again, I’ll never hype a future post again…

Tomorrow I’ll post the most depressing picture I’ve taken in this country.

Update: My depressing picture didn't turn out well. It's OK. The sad fact is that I'll be able to take it again tomorrow or the next day...

Panic time

There are many horror stories out there of people's money being lost in transfer. Here's mine.

On June 21 I sent $6000 to the US by Western Union. I checked the account number and router twice and everything matched. Today - 15 days later - it had not arrived. I went to the local Western Union office and this was the conversation:

Me: Here you can see I sent money on Sunday June 21. It's not in my account.
Clerk: If you sent it on a Sunday it can take Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... by Thursday it should be in your account.
Me: I know, but it's not.
Clerk: Have you checked with your bank?
Me: I just did, the money is not there.
Clerk: Let's see, the 21st was a Sunday. Did you send it in the morning or in the evening?
Me: In the evening, but that doesn't make a difference. IT WAS TWO WEEKS AGO.
Clerk: If you sent it in the evening it would take Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and should have arrived on Thursday. Are you sure it is not in your account?
Me: Yes.
Clerk: How do you know?
Me: I just spoke with them.
Clerk: (Looks at my paper and pulls out a calendar.) This was processed on Sunday. It should take Monday, Tuesday, Wednes...
Me: STOP COUNTING DAYS! IT'S BEEN TWO WEEKS. COUNTING DAYS IS POINTLESS!

I then had to pay $15 for the privilege of having them look into it. He tells me the inquiry may take a week.

By this time I am absolutely sick. It took everything I had to keep from screaming. Or crying.

I drove home in a daze. $6000 is not something I can afford to lose. Waves of nausea made me consider pulling over to throw up.

When I got home I called my bank in Iowa. The woman pulls up my account and says, "Nope, it's not there..." Panic turns to desperation. I wish I had a bucket near by.

While she's talking to me a coworker overhears her and says, "Oh, I remember getting a money order for Steve. It has to be there."

It turns out my local bank put it in my savings account and not my checking account.

Two hours have passed and my stomach has still not settled down.