Well, we're coming to the end of yet another baseball season, and things are cruising along as usual; the Yankees are in first (although with their schedule, they may end up as the wild-card), the White Sox choked up the stretch against perennial foe the Twins, and the Yokohama Baystars are still the worst team on Planet Earth. Their bullpen could simply not get any worse. They should fire all of them and pick the top 6 high school pitchers from the latest koshien tournament for next season. Bad, bad, bad.

Bust the Trusts

And then there was one...

So, United and Continental are now one company, as are Delta and Northwest. It is a reality of 2010 America that there are fewer and fewer companies for consumers to choose from. Not exactly a capitalist wonderland of choice, but perhaps the logical consequence of unregulated capitalism where survival of the fittest destroys all competition. Theoretically, the best company got the business it earned and thrived where competitors failed, right?

I would like to know what kind of position that leaves American taxpayers in as a result. It seems to me that in an industry that has been prone to catastrophic failure due to incompetent management, bankruptcy, destruction of retirement plans for its employees, and overall crappy service, we now have very few companies to choose from that are essentially "Too Big to Fail", in the parlance of the day. What happens when the new United or Delta manages themselves into the toilet, AGAIN? Does the government allow them to catastrophically fail as did Lehman Bros., indefinitely crippling air travel in the U.S. and elsewhere? Or does the American taxpayer once again get stuck with the bill for bailing out another huge multinational corporation that fucked up on its own?

It just seems to me that we are allowing this to happen again and again by not enforcing anti-trust laws and not disapproving mergers that leave consumers with no choice and taxpayers holding the bag.

Oh, and if you read the UK Guardian portion of the title link, you can also worry along with shareholders about whether or not United's tulip logo will be lost to history. Oh yeah, and if you have time to care, maybe more job losses. You know, whatever.

Jason Linkins

I do enjoy Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post quite a bit. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from this past weekend's liveblog of the Sunday morning talking heads:

"He also thinks reconciliation would be a ruinous tactic, but I'll point out once again: PASSING BILLS THROUGH RECONCILIATION HAS NEVER EVER PROVEN TO BE A RUINOUS TACTIC! Laws have been passed through reconciliation plenty of times. I made note of four in this here liveblog. The laws may have led to to someone's political ruin, but the reconciliation process did not. Know why? Because only Beltway wonks and media types take that point of view of reconciliation. Out in the real United States of America, if you tell a person that a bill passed 51 to 49, they say, "YEP. THAT'S EXACTLY HOW THE SENATE WORKS, LEARNED IT IN JUNIOR HIGH."

"Rendell and Schwarzenegger say that the GOP will have to compromise at the health care summit, because otherwise the ancient Celts will come over Hadrian's Wall and impose a single payer system on the Gauls, or something."

"And seriously, why is Tiger Woods apologizing to me? I don't care if he wants to plow every IHOP waitress from here to Saskatoon! This is a free country! He can do what he likes. His wife should probably leave him, but if she doesn't want to, that's fine too. I guess what I am saying is that I have lived a full and rich life of not giving a tinned shit about what Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren do in their homes and in their lives, and I think that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren should, with all deliberate haste, retreat to their previous state of not requiring me to have to confront their private lives."

Too funny.

Why Indeed.

This is an article about a subject that I have spent some time thinking about in recent months/years. I cannot fathom the American voting public at times. They are a mystery to me, and I do not imagine anyone will be hiring me to run their political campaign any time soon.

Not Exactly How I Would Have Advertised

If I Had a Hammer...

Dateline Riverside...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: Monday, January 11, 2010
Contact: Lt. Chuck Griffitts, Dayshift Watch Commander
Phone: (951) 353-7900

Home Invasion ends with suspect arrested
Juvenile Male subdued by victim’s roommate

Riverside, CA -- On Monday January 10, 2010, a little before 1 o’clock in the morning, Officers responded to the 11100 block of Norwood Ave in the City of Riverside answering a phone call reporting a home invasion robbery.

At the scene, Officers learned that a juvenile male tried to steal a car that was parked in the driveway of a single family residence. The lone juvenile male could not get the car started so he broke into the residence through a window and woke up the sleeping homeowner at knife point.

The suspect ordered the victim into the kitchen and demanded car keys and money while threatening him with a knife. The victim told the juvenile male that he did not have and money and as a result received a cut on the hand by the male juvenile. The victim sustained a minor wound and was eventually treated and released.

The victim’s roommate, a carpenter, heard the commotion and came out of his bedroom. Seeing what was going on and fearing for the victim’s safety, he hit the male juvenile in the back of the head with a hammer. The male juvenile was detained by the victim and his roommate until Police arrived on scene. The knife was recovered at the scene. The male juvenile was transported to Riverside Community Hospital for treatment of the head wound, was treated and released for booking. Officers booked the male juvenile into Riverside Juvenile Hall for home invasion robbery.

The arrested male's identification is being withheld due to his age; he is described only as a male juvenile, 17 years from the City of Riverside.

There is no further information available at this time.

Happy New Year

This is a typical front door decoration (o-kazari) for the New Year 2010 or Heisei 22, as the Japanese have traditionally recorded the year of the current Emperor.


As I have previously blogged, the Colonel's KFC is a frequent Christmas Eve meal, and our family was no exception getting a bucket to go this year. Inside were some fun stickers with which we decorated the calendar appropriately, I think:


Yeah, I don't think I'm going in there.

Me and my sister assembling the kagami mochi decoration for the front entrance. Looks more like a Dalek or a mochi helmet to me, but who am I to say?


Happy New Year!