The SoapBoxers

There were a couple of articles this weekend, including a short story on Friday.  If you have been out of town, make sure to scroll down and catch up on the last few editions of The Soap Boxers.

There were two big stories that broke during the weekend.  They were were the death of former NFL player Steve McNair and Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s announcement that she will resign as governor by the end of the month.

McNair

McNair and his girlfriend were found shot to death in his girlfriend’s condo in Nashville.  McNair had been shot multiple times, including once in the head.  His girlfriend had been shot once in the head, and the gun was found near her body.  At the time I am writing this, the police would not speculate on what occurred, but they did say that they were not actively looking at suspects.  From these pieces of information, however, the likely scenario is that McNair’s girlfriend shot him before turning the gun on herself.  Certainly more information will be released in the coming days.

McNair played college football for division 1-AA Alcorn State.  1-AA (now referred to as FCS) is a rung below the “major” college programs of division 1-A (referred to as FBS).  Few 1-AA player ever get the chance to play in the NFL.  McNair was a man among boys in college, however, and proved that he belonged with the big boys.  Despite the fact that he had not played against top level competition in college, McNair was the #3 overall pick in the 1994 draft by the Houston Oilers (who later became the Tennessee Titans).

McNair fought many injuries during his career, but still ended up with more than 30,000 passing yards and 3500 rushing yards.  McNair was a 3 time Pro Bowl player, won an MVP award (shared with Peyton Manning), and got the Titans to within one yard of a Super Bowl title following the 1999 season.  In the process, he tore down many barriers that had been put in the path of African American quarterbacks.

Palin

On Friday, Sarah Palin announced that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, saying that she did not want to be a lame duck, and once again saying that she has been the victim of a double standard regarding her treatment by the press.

Palin, of course, did not face an issue of term limits, so she was the person who labeled herself a lame duck.  The deadline for filing for the next gubernatorial election is nearly a year away, so she could have easily kept her plans close to the vest until then, and avoided lame duck status.

As for Palin saying that she was been treated unfairly by the media, and that a male would not have been treated a harshly – I do not buy this argument.  Certainly the conservative wing of the media attacked Barack Obama on several issues that were of less importance than the ethics complaints surrounding Palin.  When Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate, many in the media (and many outside the media, such as myself) were stunned at the choice.  Some felt that the choice of Palin was an attempt to draw female voters who had previously supported Hilary Clinton – a strategy that had little chance of working, considering the major ideological difference between Clinton and Palin.  Palin clearly had some baggage attached to her, and many people felt that this baggage would drag down the ticket.  However you might feel about the issues that surrounded Palin, I think that it is quite logical to suggest that she was indeed a drag on the ticket and was a major reason why McCain performed poorly on election day.

What’s next for Sarah Palin?  Your guess is as good as mine.  She may be finished with politics, or she end up as a presidential candidate in 2012.  The Republican Party probably does not want her on the ticket in 2012.  Although she might have a reasonable chance of winning the Republican nomination, her inability to garner necessary votes from the centrists would make it difficult for her to win the general election.  The fact that she is resigning as governor will likely be used against her by opponents who will portray her as a quitter who quits when the going gets tough.

A possible, albeit strange, strategy?  Palin takes on Republican senator Lisa Markowski in 2010, and then uses Washington D.C. as the base of operations for a 2012 presidential run.  This would be considerably more convenient than using Alaska as her base.  The sheer distance of Alaska from the rest of the country would force her to either miss important events or cause her to be away from her job as governor.

The only problem with this plan?  Murkowski would probably beat her in the primary.

UPDATE: Palin’s attorney is warning the media, indication that legal action will be pursued against reports who say that Palin is stepping down because she is the subject of a federal investigation.  This is the first I had heard about a possible federal investigation – and if Governor Palin’s attorneys are reading this, I am not suggesting that this is why she is stepping down 🙂

FURTHER UPDATE: The FBI confirms that they are NOT investigating Palin.

OK, I said I wasn’t going to post any article this weekend, but here is a short one.

Back On April 15, we launched a Stock Market contest (click link to see insights from the participants) in which a team of Goliaths (personal finance bloggers) were matched up against a team of Davids (people who were not personal finance bloggers). At the end of May, the Dow stood at 8500.33 and had gained average 12.34 points during the course of the contest, making the Davids the favorites.

The market tried to tread water in June, however, closing the month down 53.33 points at 8447.00.  Once again, we’ll project the Dow’s year end close, assuming a linear trend.

At the end of the day on April 14th (the 104th day of the year), the Dow was at 7920.18.

At the end of the day on June 30 (the 181st day of the day), the Dow was at 8500.33

This is a gain of 526.82, or 6.84 points per day. If we assume that the market will contain to gain at exactly the same rate throughout the rest of the year (yes, a ridiculous assumption), the Dow will be at 9185.58 at the end of the year.

How do our contestants stack up?

I also invited visitors to play along at home. Let’s see how they are doing.

At this point, team David is still in the lead, but the fact that the Dow was down for the month of June has allowed team Goliath to get much closer.  Check back next month for the next update.

Note: there will be no new articles on Saturday or Sunday.  We will resume our regular schedule on Monday.  Scroll down to see the Fiction Friday story “Check, Mate” from earlier today.

In an effort to continually improve the product that we bring to you, we don’t let the grass grow under our feet.    We have several staff changes to announce, and hope to announce more in the coming days.  My long term goal for the magazine is to develop something that gives readers the variety of articles that the see in The New Yorker

Staff changes

• Entertainment Editor Bob Inferapels, has been waylaid by “life” and has notified us that he will not be able to contribute on a weekly basis.  We are, however, keeping him on board as a contributor.  We hope to see more of his articles in the future, and perhaps a return to a larger role at some point.
• To bring non-U.S. viewpoint to The Soap Boxers, we are pleased to announce a Canadian presence on the staff.  Tyson Turner will write a weekly column on Sundays.  His primary focus will be the issues, events, and places that are prominent in the lives of Canadians.
• Peter Rabbit will become a contributor on a monthly basis.  Peter will focus on politics and international issues.

What are we looking for?

We are still looking to add some writers to our team.  We are looking to fill several gaps in our coverage.  Could you be the right candidate?

• All of the current staff writers and contributors are male.  We would like to include a female writer on the staff, in order  to bring a different perspective.  Essentially, I’m looking for a softer, feminine edge to the blog one day a week.  If you are interested in this role, but don’t want to do an article every week, contact me anyway.  I could set up some sort of rotation if we have multiple people interested.  This is the only weekly spot I am looking for fill.  The other roles would all be once a month, or less often.
• Since a significant portion of our readers are from outside of the United States,  I would like to include some international contributors to write about one article per month.  In particular, I would like to  like to engage some folks from Africa or Asia.  If English is not your first language, don’t let this discourage you – I can edit your article to remove any awkward spots.
• Do you have an interesting role within our society?  College student?  Fireman?  Aspiring actress?  I’d love to see some article about your experiences.
• Are you a senior citizen who would like to tell people about things that happened when you were younger?
• Are you a poet or a cartoonist?  Perhaps we could feature some of your work.
• Articles will typically be in the range of 500 – 800 words.  We’re looking for opinions, in addition to facts.  Anyone can go to an encyclopedia for the facts – but only you can give your opinion.
• Reliability is key.  I understand missing an occasional deadline, but if you miss four deadlines in a row, that can be disruptive to the schedule.

Benefits

Why would you want to want to write for The Soap Boxers?

• Money – Well, this probably isn’t the right reason.  When profits emerge, I’ll share proportionally, after covering overhead costs (I can discuss this more deeply if you have sincere interest – it’s actually fairly simple).  At this point, we haven’t turned that corner, so don’t make money the reason why you would join the staff.
• Audience – You would have a built in audience from day 1.  We don’t have a huge audience, but it is steadily growing, and we do have a core group of folks who come back every day.  If you’re thinking about blogging, but don’t want to blog to an open room, this opportunity gives you and audience from the beginning.  If you later decide to launch your own blog, go ahead and jump ship – certainly some of the audience will also read your new blog.  If you decide that blogging isn’t for you, you can step away easily.
• Easy – You don’t have to know anything at all about blogging.  If you’re familiar with WordPress, I can get you up and have you compose articles on the site.  If you’d prefer to just email me your work, that’s also fine.  All you need to do to do is write.
• Resume builder – Will writing for us ensure that you get your dream job when you apply?  Of course not – but it’s something interesting to mention during interviews.  There are a lot of skills that come into play, such as meeting deadlines and working with minimal supervision.
• You get to work alongside a guy who uses lots of bulleted lists.  Talk about a barrel of fun!

What’s next?

• OK, so you’re interested.  What are the next steps?
• Send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com.  Tell me what sort of position you are interest in, describe your qualifications, and include a writing sample (this may be a link to a web page where you have some of your work).
• I will take a look at your work, compare it to the other submissions I receive, and decide if you are a good fit for a recurring column.  Even if you aren’t selected for a recurring column, I may be able to use your work on an occasional basis.

The process will be relatively painless, I promise.  I’m a very easygoing person, and I’m not going to rake you over the coals.  If I don’t think we’re a good fit, I’ll tell you that and move on.

Thanks for reading!

“There you go, Mr. Casey,” I said, ripping the check out of the checkbook.

The car dealer glanced down at the check.

“It was good doing business with you again, Mr. Maxwell.  I’m sorry that we couldn’t work out a finance deal this time.”

“Maybe you’ll have that zero percent deal the next time I need to buy a car,” I replied.  I shook the man’s hand and walked out of the dealership.  Car dealers can get a bad reputation, but Casey was a straight shooter and didn’t put people through the ringer like some other dealers did.  He ran a small family dealership – he lived comfortably, but was not rich.  Perhaps he could have lived a bit higher on the hog if he was more heavy handed in his negotiations, but Casey seemed rather happy with his life.

Seventeen days later, I received my statement from the bank.  Oddly, the check for the car had not cleared.  I was concerned that Casey had somehow misplaced the check, so I gave him a call.

“There has been no problem, Mike,” he replied.  “We received the funds on the eighth.  There’s no problem on our end.  It sounds like this might be a bank error.”

I got off the phone with Bob Casey and immediately called the bank.

“I’m looking up your account, Mr. Maxwell,” replied Miranda Johnson, the teller.  “I’m not seeing any checks to Casey Auto.”

“How can that be?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s really not that unusual,” she said.  “The federal reserve acts as a clearinghouse for checks, and sometimes there is a lag.  It seems that the one half of the transaction has been completed, but the other half has not.  They typically fix the problem within a few weeks.  I’m certain that it will be straightened out soon.”

Miranda’s words allayed my fears, and I put the matter out of my mind.

A month later, when I received my next bank statement, the check to Casey Auto had still not cleared.  Even more puzzling, not a single check had cleared my account.  I immediately grabbed the phone and began calling the companies who had received the checks.  Like Bob Casey, all of them had received their money.

This time, even the unflappable Miranda Johnson was a bit flapped.

“This is definitely a bit unusual, Mr. Maxwell.  I have never seen it take this long for the fed to fix a problem – and the fact that none of your checks cleared is especially troubling.  I’ll give a call to my contact at the Fed and see what she can find out.”

Miranda’s colleague, unfortunately, was also not able to find the root cause of the problem.  From the perspective of the federal reserve bank, the checks had never existed – and yet, payments had been received.

Three days later, a gentleman from the FBI was at my door when I arrived home.

“Mike Maxwell?” asked the man in the suit.

“Yes, that’s me,” I replied.

“I’d like to ask you some questions about a grand larceny that was committed.  May I come in?”

“Grand larceny?” I asked, confused.  Agent Brisbane followed me into the house.

Once inside the house, Brisbane pulled several photocopies out of his briefcase.

“Do not recognize these?’ he asked.

“Of course,” I replied.  “Those are some checks that I wrote.”

“Indeed,” he replied.  47 checks for a total of $44,318.41, drawn on the account of a Ms. Rose Tinsdale.”

“What?” I replied.  “Rose Tisdale?  Clearly this check was drawn on my own account..  See, that’s my checking account number.”

Indeed, it was my account number.  However, the bank’s routing number was wrong.  Somehow, the printer has transposed two digits, and my checks were being drawn against the account of Ms. Tinsdale.  Ms. Tinsdale had been in ill health and had not kept her finance current.  It was only when she died that her children realized that someone was “stealing” money from her account and notified the FBI.

The foundation of my musical appreciation was built upon the country music cornerstones of Alabama, Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers, and George Strait.  It was not until I was in my late 20s that I began to branch out into other musical genres.  Today, these are some of the non-country artists that I consider to be among my favorites:

• The Eagles
• .38 Special
• Jimmy Buffett
• Avril Lavigne
• U2
• The Beatles
• Bob Seger
• Eric Clapton
• Bob Dylan
• Tchaikovsky
• Bare Naked Ladies
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Styx

I could name a few more, but the point is that I have broadened my musical tastes considerably.

I really enjoy seeing artists – or their music – cross over.  My first exposure to The Eagles was via the “Common Threads” album – a compilation of Eagles songs that were song by country songs.  When Jon Bon Jovi did a duet with Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles on “You Can’t Go Home Again”, the song went to #1 on the country charts – and I started listening to more Bon Jovi.

In 2008, Kid Rock released the song “All Summer Long”, which is based on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s uber-classic “Sweet Home Alabama” (as well as Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”).  I love the song, and am hoping for similar songs from Kid Rock in the future.

A crossover artist that really has my attention these days is Darius Rucker, best known as Hootie of Hootie and the Blowfish.  Rucker has released a country album and has already had two number one hits – “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” and “It Won’t Be Like This For Long.”  I love Rucker’s voice, and hope that he continues to produce country music – but I also plan to buy some Hootie and the Blowfish music to see if I like it – something that probably wouldn’t have entered my mind if not for Rucker’s foray into country.

What’s the one crossover I’m hoping to see in the future?  How about an album of duets with Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne?

The big news story of last week was the death of pop icon Michael Jackson at age 50.  News accounts have indicated that Jackson left behind $400 million.  Jackson’s estate does, of course, contain some valuable assets.  Most notable is his music portfolio, which includes his own music, as well as a portion of royalties from The Beatles.  The day after his death, 9 of the 10 most downloaded iTunes albums were Jackon’s.  This also underscores the ability of digital content providers to be able to seamlessly adjust to spikes in demand.  If stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Sam Goody sold out of Jackson CDs, they would not be able to satisfy the demand until they were able to restock.  Since the demand will likely dissipate as time passes, they will likely lose some of the impulse sales.  Digital providers such as iTunes are immune from this.  iTunes can’t “sell out” of a CD.  They just throw more hardware into the iTunes Music Store to handle the spike in volume.

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff was sentence to 150 years in prison.  If Madoff serves the entire sentence, he would be 221 years old when he is released.  Essentially, the judge gave Madoff a life sentence.  Madoff will likely spend his remaining years in a medium security prison (a prison with bars on the windows and a fence) rather than a country club of a minimum security prison, due to the length of the sentence and the corresponding flight risk.  The judge also ruled that Madoff must also forfeit $171 billion.  It seems impossible that such a large amount will be recovered.

Minnesota finally has a winner in their Senate race.  The state supreme court unanimously declared Al Franken to be the winner, and challenger Norm Coleman has given up his fight.  The win by Franken mkaes it easier for the Democrats to invoke cloture (a procedure to end a filibuster and force a vote on an issue; 60 votes are required for cloture).  I have a question, though – does Franken get paid the salary of a Senator for the last 8 months?  Or does the money that was allocated to his salary go somewhere else (Chrysler, perhaps?).  I wrote a humorous article about the Minnesota Senate situation a couple of months ago.

Another Airbus jet suffered a deadly ocean crash.  This time, a Yemeni jet plunged into the Indian Ocean with 153 people on board.  At the time this story was written, one child had been found alive, and authorities were hoping that other survivors would be found.  The Airbus jet involved is this crash is a different model that the Brazilian jet that crashed on June 1, leaving no survivors.

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford admitted having an affair with a woman in Argentina.  This came to light after Sanford recently was unreachable by his staff.  As it turned out, he was in Argentina at the time.  Many politicians include Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, have called for Sanford to step down.  If Sanford does step down, Bauer would stand to gain the most.  He would become governor, and this would greatly aid his 2010 run for the office, as he would be elevated to incumbent without being voted into the office.

Manny Ramirez will rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, after a 50 game drug related suspension.  Ramirez has played 5 games in the minor leagues in an effort to get back into playing shape.  I disagree with this aspect of the suspension.  Some would argue that preventing a player from playing in the minors during the suspension would essentially turn a 50 games suspension into a 55-60 game suspension.  My opinion is that if the player can’t hitting the ground running on day 1 after the suspension, that’s his problem, not mine.  He should not be allowed to play any games during the suspension, whether it be in the minors or majors.