Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Friday, July 30, 2004

Doldrums

So what's a fine young blogger such as yourself doing on-line on a night like this?

I ask myself this question at this very moment (actually, not "this" moment meaning the one you're using to read this but "this" moment when I am writing this bit of..um...writing...) I find that I have reached the Friday night doldrums. This disturbs me a bit. The Friday night doldrums are OK after a killer week at school with several late nights up talking with students about the most difficult of things (usually the future). By Friday all I care about is having someone else cook me a meal, having a beer and collapsing on some relatively horizontal piece of furniture. But you see, I haven't had one of those weeks.

My plan had kind of been to go to a David Wilcox concert with the lovely wife but things didn't work out so well on that front. It seems her work has sort of poked it's nose in so I've missed David twice in a row now. I'm a bit bummed actually and have little interest in rousing myself towards much else for the evening. I expect things will be a bit boring until I/we decide to go to bed. I guess the earlier I do this the earlier I can get out of the Friday night doldrums and onto Saturday which I hope will begin with a good ride of reasonable distance.

Anyways, until next time...

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Thursday, July 29, 2004

Tax Code

So, a couple of posts ago I wrote of my desire for a blanced budget. This time I'll write of my desire of how to do it. Al ot of Americans hate taxes. Why is this? Because they have to take a significant amount of time stressing about them and whther they'll have to pay a large lump sum at some point in the year. They also stress out about whether they are paying more than their fair share (whatever that means). So here's how I think we should fix this problem so that Americans worry less about their taxes and resent paying them less.

First, move much of the burden from income tax to sales tax. Most states have a sales tax and you rarely hear of anyone gripping about how those politicians at the state capitol are spending their sales tax dollars. You just pay it. In fact, most people just tend to think of the tax as part of the cost of the purchase. Additionally, you are only taxing what is spent. If people are saving money then it's not being taxed so much. I don't know what this number should be but it should apply to both good and services, to purchases in a store and on the internet and to purchases made by businesses and by individuals. The only exception would be to goods and services exchanged in a barter system. If you want to exempt most food and real medicines I can see that (that's what they did in Florida) but nothing else.

Secondly, flat rate income tax withheld by your employer from the get go. If it's 10% then everyone pays 10% right out of their paycheck. You income tax form could be sent in on a post card. If you make less than a certain amount you get some back (or maybe not). The savings just from doing away with most of the IRS would be enormous. Not tax credits for kids or college or any of the rest. Everyone gives the same percentage. For those who say that the burden is greater on the poor has to realize that income tax was originally cooked up as a way to redistribute wealth in times of severe economic disparity. While some claim that the rich are getting richer and so on, the gap is significantly less than it was at the turn of the 20th century.

Finally, no more capital gains taxes or estate taxes. If you pay up front and for what you buy (cars, houses, Glad wrap, dental floss) then everything else is your to do with what you please. If you make a killing in the market then you'll pay taxes on the profits when you spend the money on the stuff you decide to buy later on. Estate taxes were created to soak the rich and they worked for a while. Now-a-days most smart folks put their money in a living trust and therefore avoid the taxes. Let's get rid of all the paperwork banks and everyone else has to do to keep up with all this and just let people keep what they save. By the way, no more pre-tax 401(k) plans or anything. Pay your income tax up front and put the rest away however you'd like with no worry of having to pay some tax penalty later on.

Do the numbers so that you balance the budget and get it done. This is the second thing I see a lot of people wanting to vote for. The states have been doing it this way for years. There's a lot less complaining about state taxes than there is about federal taxes and I think it's mostly because sales tax makes up most of the burden. My Mom gets madder than all get out when she does her federal taxes because she thinks it's just unfair but doesn't think a think of the 6% of her money the state of Utah takes every time she goes to Smith's for a bag of groceries.

So, Mr's Kerry and Bush take notes...balance the budget and dramatically simplify the tax code. Go the populist route and tell folks to tell their reps to stop listening to interest groups and start listening to the people. Congress will get the hint if you set the tone. Remember the "Contract with America" thing a few years back. Simple essage from the Republican party that got a lot of people to vote for them. You may not have agreed but it made for effective political policy.

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Gone Fishin'...Well, Almost

As of today I'm on vacation to a goodly degree. Classes are done, grades are turned in and my school responsibilities are over for the next couple of weeks. Unlike many other of my break times where I feel the deep need to spend my free time doing home maintanence, yard work, curriculum review and overhaul or something else that seems like work I have committed myself to rest and relaxation. My recreation has some goals but they are very oriented towards me doing nothing that seems like real work. Some of them include:

Reading a great biography of Johannes Kepler titled, "Kepler's Witch".
Riding my bike a lot.
Taking a good, solid nap each day.
Finishing the John Adams biography I started six months ago.
Searing animal flesh on hot metal over even hotter coals on a regular basis.
Building a bookcase for the library...but only if I really, really feel like it.
Playing with the hounds a bit each day and spending some quiet time with them some each night.
Watching movies with my wife every so often.
Not feeling like I'm wasting time when I'm sitting around enjoying not doing anything.

Usually I like to go somewhere during this time. Last year we went to Darian and hung out and saw a few things. It was fun but also it was a bit expensive and i kept thinking how great it would be to hang out at home. This year I've decided to take vacation her in Barnesville. I'm going to try not to do very much that I wouldn't do if I were lounging around in a hotel room in some other place. If this doesn't work, I'll likely kidnap my wife and go to North Carolina to a La Quinta Inn we enjoy very much to see an old friend. Hopefully it won't have to come to that but I'll take extreme measures if necessary to enforce a calm before the storm of August and school beginning again.

That is all, you may carry on. More tomorrow...maybe...if I feel like it...probably in the heat of the summer day...after my nap and a bit of ice cream...Moose Tracks...I love Moose Tracks...and I can eat all I want because I'll have ridden 50 miles before most people have finished their mid-morning snack...if I weren't in training I'd write it while having a beer...a really good, craft brewed ale...probably something light bodied with a crisp, sweet taste...but that's have to wait until August 12th...can't tell you why...it's secret...not secret like I'd have to kill you if I told you or anything...just, secret like anonymity...sort of an out-of-the-way thing...like that perfect spot by the stream that you go to when you need to get away and think about "stuff"...anyway...More tomorrow...maybe...

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Paging a real Presidential candidate

As the Democrats begin their once every four years spin-o-rama festival(the Republicans will hold their's a bit later), I find my mind wandering to issues political. As I read a little blurb from a college student in Newsweek as to what she was looking for in a political candidate I began to ask myself the same question, what do I want in a Presidential candidate in order to vote for him or her. I've pondered this question for nigh unto two weeks and I have reached a couple of conclusions. Before I unveil these ideas let me say a thing or two as a preface.

I think I'm the voter each party hopes for and is afraid of. I am educated, intelligent and I can be persausive in convincing others of my opinion when I have one (ask the people who now own bikes or Macs because of my wife and I). Each party wants me but is afraid of my ability to think for myself and question the party's platform. My Democratic and Republican friends both like and curse me because I agree with some things and I don't agree with others. But what I have discovered is that I'm really a one issue voter right now. So, if there are party officials plumbing the depths of small, insignificant blogs; pay attention and I'll tell you what I want and what I think a lot of my generation really wants.

My one issue is balancing the budget and using the surpluses to pay down the debt. In other words, I will vote for any candidate that promises to do anything in their power to return us to fiscal responsibility. I like a good tax cut as much as the next guy but I'm pretty darn sure that if over 20% of my tax dollars didn't go to servicing the interest on the national debt my taxes would be a LOT lower. I support a strong military. We'd have a lot more money for military projects if there weren't a huge debt. I think that there are social issues that governement is uniquely able to handle but it's hard to do when you are giving one-fifth of your income to banks and foreign countries who have underwritten our spending addiction.

I've decided that if I can't run up an uncontrolled debt neither should those individuals who spend my money. Especially when they like to spend it on their pet projects. So, Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, if you want my vote I want a promise that you will balance the budget within two years. I don't care if you raise taxes or cut spending or both, just get the country back in the black on a year to year basis and keep us there. Promise that you'll use surpluses to pay off the debt (not save Social Security or some other "program") and build that into your budget. Make this the number one issue of your campaign in your media releases and stump speeches.

I honestly don't care what Rush or Michael Moore or any of the other talking heads say at this point, I can't think of a single more important topic to decide a political race on. Why? Because if a politician can't restrain him or herself on spending, what will they be able to discipline themselves to do? If a candidate promises to vigorously push a balanced budget amendment I'll personally volenteer on their local "get out the vote" or whatever else efforts. This is THE big issue to me and everything else is secondary. If you, my occasionally gentle readers, support this, put it into your blogs, send letters to the campaigns and otherwise let the world know about it.

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Monday, July 26, 2004

Recent Thoughts

The summer semester here is winding down and I have a few moments to reflect. I find myself wondering about my students, their futures and the idea of education in general. Some of this comes from the courses I taught here at Gordon where I have had such a variety of students over the last eight weeks. Some have done well, some have done poorly and some are still in the middle. I was surprised to receive an email from a student wanting me to change a grade for no other reason than she "needed" a better one. The idea of asking for that is beyond me. In my world view, you tend to get what you earn. The student earned the grade given and yet wants to be given a better grade for no other reason than she wants it. Oh sure, there are the rationalizations one must always come up with to arrive at such an amazing request but what it comes down to is that the student doesn't want to get the grade she earned. I have to say that I received a few grades in college I wasn't particularly happy with but I never considered asking a professor to change said grade, even when I felt I had been a victim of a less than scrupulous professor.

Another interesting experience was teaching a course for on-line educators. For the most part these folks are hard working people who care deeply about what they were doing and how they can better serve their students. In one discussion question, however, I asked them to explain what they expected from students coming into their classes and what they thought their students should be able to do when they leave the educator's class. I have to say that the results confirmed what I have long suspected. Many educators have no expectations and no real objectives. Many of them actually believe that having them is wrong or bad. Many believe that failure is not an option in bad way (I can't fail a student, the consequences would be too severe). I had a NASA funded educational consultant monitoring the course and I think she was blown away. The government agencies that involve themselves in K-12 education have no real understanding of what's happening in the trenches. I'm really beginning to think that "No Child Left Behind" means "No Child Really Educated". I have to say, if I had children, I would either home-school or send them to a private school.

On an unrelated note, Lance made history this weekend. Most everybody knows about his sixth consecutive Tour victory at this point but almost no one knows how six victories in a row have happened. Phil Liggett reported a statistic that was a good indicator of the preparation Lance puts in. Prior to racing the Tour, Lance had already logged over 12,000 miles of training in the first six months of the year. That's halfway around the globe. Since December of 2003 when my training season started I've logged 10,000 which is a 14,000 mile pace for the entire year (I take November off). Lance trains more in six months than I do in twelve. I wonder if every athlete held to such a disciplined training schedule how the face of sports would change?

Speaking of sports (did I just channel Howard Cossell?), did you read where the men's and women's basketball coaches where fired at LaSalle University after two alleged rapes came to light. In one case a female player from another univerity who was acting as a counselor at a basketball camp at the university was raped by two men's players and in the other case a member of the university's own women's team was raped by players from the men's team and then was discouraged from reporting it by university coaches. To me this is where big money college athletics is going. The pressure to win is so great and so pervasive that many coaches feel that they must act in ways that put the students at the universities they work at at risk. Athletes with questionable character are recruited because they can play and coaches make horrible decisions to keep them there. Universities recruit and hire coaches with character issues themselves becasue they seem to be able to deliver the wins and, with them, greater contributions through supporters and alumni. When does it stop? What can anyone do? Really it's all our fault because we support the system by watching events on TV, buying tickets to games and sending in our alumni money to the general scholarship accounts. In my opinion the least that should happen is that LaSalle's basketball program should be shut down for ten years. Any program in which a coach conspired to cover up a felony should be shuttered. If a fraternity is found guilty of hazing it's members it is suspended for a duration that gaurentees that any student involved in the original problem will not be at the university when the fraternity is allowed back. Ten years would make sure that all parties responsible for the felony (athletes, coaches, fans, boosters, rich alumni, athletic directors, university presidents) would have a good long time to think about who they hire and why. No university would ever take a chance on a tainted coach again. Many coaches would have their character shored up each time they were tempted to overlook something by the possible consequences of their actions. I can't help but believe that the University of Alabama would have taken a lot closer look at Mike Price if such a rule had been in place.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Condolences for an unknown friend...

Just a brief note for now.

As those of you who read this column regularly know, one of my cycling heroes is Tyler Hamilton, whose gutsy ride in last year's tour was a huge inspiration to me and many, many other cyclists. CyclingNews.com has reported that Tyler's Golden Retriever Tugboat contracted cancer and has had to be put down. Tyler's riding in the Tour this year for the Phonak team and while he has endured the burden of physical pain and injury in the past, this tour will have to be endured through the sadness of having lost his close friend and companion. If you get a chance, say a prayer for Tyler and his wife Haven as they try to come to grips with the lost of their long-time family member and take some time to pet a dog in Tugs' memory.

More Later...

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Saturday, July 10, 2004

What a long week...

This last week has been one to test my patience in a large number of ways. What I like for the summer is to have sort of a set schedule wherein I do the same sort of things at the same sort of times each and every day. I like the idea that the rush of the normal semester sort of settles down into a much more managable set of activities. When this happens I feel pretty centered and in control of things and the time I spend doing other activities has a joy brought about by being sort of the "spice" of a routine.

This last week has been anything but routine. Kathy and I have a theory that every so often a person sort of enters into a "Bermuda Triangle" of customer service wherein every attempt to get served by someone starts, ends and wallows in ineptitude on the good days and disaster on the bad ones. Our journey began last Sunday at the Griffin Home Depot. We went in to get a storage shed and a small, inexpensive lawnmower. We probably should have known better than to try to get stuff on the Fourth but we didn't and what should have taken fifteen minutes took over an hour. Fortunately, we did mange to finally get a little bit of help that wasn't either clueless, lazy or hungover from July 3rd festivities. The shed would have to be delivered on Wednesday but that was OK by me.

Then on Monday evening, the car died inexplicably. I mean just went clunk and wouldn't start. The problem was that I had on-line class stuff I had to do all day Tuesday and on-campus class all day Wednesday. Still I tried to arrainge a tow for Wednesday afternoon. AAA and the towing company conspried to keep us in the triangle and the tow truck couldn't be bothered to make it by 5:00 pm Wed. when the garage closed. Just to add to that, Home Depot delivered the shed on Wednesday but it turned out to be the wrong one ("Read?" wondered the young man in school, "Why should I have to learn how to read? I just plan to deliver stuff to people's house, I shouldn't need to read anything for that."). I think the overwhelming sense of frustration must have manifested in some sort of Jungian synchronistic way as while I stood there fuming about the absent tow truck and the mistaken shed the weather turned darker and more threatening by the minute. At about 5:00 pm the severe thunderstorm hit town and ripped apart trees from Aldora to Johnstonville. The lovely wife, who had ridden her bike to work had gotten "trapped" in the glorified shed her school district calls a technology building. Her lights flickered on and off while the building rattled. On our street I got to watch 100 year old oaks split in half due to wind sheer. While we had power for a time after the storm, that soon gave out too and we got to spend a long evening in the dark. The one saving grace was that there was a little cool air behind the storm so we didn't have to swelter.

Thursday I got to try to get two students to understand that they were failing my astronomy class and that they were at the end of the rope in terms of grade. They had to either get really busy or get out. On Friday they both came to class and both used some of the class time to catch up on their missing sleep. In my on-line class, a student who hasn't turned in anything for four weeks and who failed to respond to an e-mail message I send her two and a half weeks ago asking if she was going to drop the class e-mails me out of the blue and wants to know what she can do to get caught up. Argh!

So here it is on Saturday. We did get the shed delivered on Thursday and the car finally towed on Thursday. The tow guy was something out of deliverence who showed up almost 2 hours after he was supposed to and then didn't know he was on a AAA call. At least the Home Depot guys were nice abot the trade out and took care of things with a minimum of fuss. Friday, JH, the lovely wife and I got the shed up though it took us two hours longer than the directions indicated it would. We are autoless which wouldn't be such a bad thing except the 100+ degree heat index and the shopping errands we need to run. I don't mind running errands on the bike (actually I like it a lot...I get a sort of sense of taking the 'high ground' when I do it) but I sure would rather not do it in conditions that woudl kill a lot of people who tried it. With the car out, all racing is in jeopardy. I missed the Georgia Games road events and may end up missing the MTB events as well.

An additional annoyance is that this same little dog keeps showing up at the LW's workplace. The dog is about as ugly as any I've ever seen. She's spoiled rotten and the first time the LW brought her home she was antagonistic towards the boys. Cooper doesn't handle antagonism well so now he's scared of her. This is the third time she's shown up at the tech building and the third time she's come home. The dog's "owner" doesn't have a leash or collar for her and apparently this happens so frequently that the vet's office near the school has taken to using strong langauge when this woman comes looking for "her" dog. So I'm spending all weekend in a house with two retrievers who are desperately trying to avoid this UGLY dog.

Finally, I'm all out of ice cream and I can't go get a gallon at the store because it'd melt by the time I got home. I think if the weather doesn't deteriorate into the late afternoon/evening thunderstorm mess we seem to get one day in three (or every night for about the three weeks prior to this one) I'm going to walk down to Dairy Queen and get something really, really decadent. The good thing about living in a small town is that everything's close. Pbbbbtttt! Anyone have directions for getting out of The Triangle???

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