The SoapBoxers

Lately, the hottest news topic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (where I work) is the existence of speed cameras.  These are unmanned cameras that take a picture of speeding cars.  You then get a ticket in the mail.  There are a lot of people very upset about the cameras – why?

The cameras are there to make money, not for safety

Many people complain that the city cares more about the revenue generated by the cameras than about improving safety.  An interesting aspect of the speed cameras is that they are installed by a private company at no direct expense to the city.  The private company then takes a cut of the fines.  This model is popular with cities, because they don’t to carve out budget items for the installation and maintenance of the cameras.  It’s popular with private companies because a lot of people speed, allowing them to make good money.

I agree that the positioning of the cameras could be better from a safer perspective.  There is one camera each in the northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 380.  While you’ll never compare I-380 with New York City city traffic, it is nonetheless one of the more heavily traveled routes in the state.  There are some curves that can be dangerous if you’re going too fast and not paying attention – it would be nice to see the cameras a bit closer to them.

However, it’s worth noting that a local TV station analyzed tickets that were handed out, and it appears that the threshold is 12 miles per hour over the speed limit.  If the threshold was just a few mph over the limit, I’d be more swayed by this argument.  As it stands, I think there is a dual effect – there is some increase in revenue and also some increase in safety.

There’s nobody watching, so I shouldn’t get a ticket!

There are people who feel that their rights are violated because there’s not an actual human police officer operating a radar gun to catch them speeding.  The logic is that they don’t have a sporting chance against the camera.  Well, I think that’s the logic, anyway.

This is an argument that I dismiss out of hand.  If you burglarize a store and get caught on the security video, it’s perfectly OK to use this as evidence of the crime, right – even though you weren’t caught in the act.  Why would speeding be different?

It’s not even possible to accuse the city of being sneaky with the cameras.  Everyone knows exactly where they are.  If you’re not sure, you can go online and find out.  There are mobile speed cameras – and their locations are broadcast on the news.

In some locales, people have fought these tickets with the “it’s not me driving the car” defense – including the guy who donned a gorilla mask to avoid having his face captured by the camera (how safe is that?).  In Cedar Rapids, the tickets issued by the cameras (well, actually issued by a human after reviewing tapes) are issued to the registered owner of the car, not necessarily to the driver – similar to the way parking tickets work.  If someone else was driving your car, you need to make them reimburse yet.  On the flip side, the ticket doesn’t go on your driving record because of due process issues.

Where Do I Stand?

I doubt this is going to be a surprise.  Although I’m as guilty of speeding as anyone else, I also believe that municipalities have a perfect right to use every tool at their disposal to enforce laws.  If you’re exceeding the speed limit by 12 mph, you’re simply going to take the risk of a few tickets.

The local news spoke with one woman who managed to get 14 tickets in the span of a few months, at a cost of around $1000.  Again, this is in spite of the fact that everyone knows exactly where the cameras are.  She commented that she has changed her driving habits, and now always set cruise control.  That’s not the safest thing in the world, considering the amount of merging traffic, but it’s probably safer than going as fast as she previously did.

“Weighing in one hundred forty six pounds,  Ellllllston Murrrrrray.”

Murray climbed into the ring to moderate applause.  He could see his opponent approaching with a large entourage in tow.

“And weighing in at one hundred forty seven pounds, the resigning world welterweight champion, Bruuuuuuuiser Brrrrrrrrrrown.”  The sellout crowd broke out into a deafening chant – “Bru!  Bru!  Bru!” 

Elston Murray watched the spectacle with disguised disgust.  Brown was an egotistical showboat who had gained his championship belt in a controversial split decision in which he had leveled several cheap shots when the ref wasn’t looking.  A sportsman he certainly wasn’t.

Murray had begun his boxing career as an angry, troubled youth.  By the time Murray had become a Golden Gloves champion, his legal problems were a thing of the past and the anger had begun to fade.  When he met Maria, the anger disappeared altogether.

Maria disliked seeing him in the ring, and eventually Murray also tired of the scene.  The ugly underbelly of the sport gained more exposure every year and fighters like Bruiser Brown brought shame to a sport that had once been great.  Elston Murray had retired in his prime – never having gotten a title shot, but having experienced much success in his career.

Elston had saved most of his prize money, rather than blowing the cash on fancy cars, drugs, and call girls.  Even with the conservative investing, he and Maria should have been earn enough in interest and dividends to live comfortably, if not extravagantly.

Then the cancer came.  Nothing helped Maria – not even the experimental treatments.  The medical bills would have been crippling for many people.  For Elston and his infant son, the bills were of minimal importance compared to the loss of a beloved wife and mother.  He sold some of their assets to pay for the medical bills and Maria’s funeral, and the two Murray men soldered on – with a bit of belt tightening.

Then came the salt in the wound.  Elston had intentionally engaged three different financial advisors to manage his assets in order to minimize the risk of embezzlement.  The advisors devised a plan to work together to steal the entirety of his portfolio out from under him.  His nest egg was gone.  He was forced to take out a home equity line of credit to make ends meet.

Elston realized that in order to send Sammy to a good college, he’d have to step back in the ring.  At 30, he was getting a bit old for the business, but had kept himself in good shape.  He reached out to some boxers he had mentored when he was still active, asking for a fight.  Most were happy to oblige a man who was universally liked and whom had aided many fighters with their technique.

After two years of slugging it out for peanuts, Elston had begun to get some bigger fights.  A couple of stunning upsets pushed him up the rankings.  When the champion needed to schedule a title defense in order to keep his belt, he picked the old guy, assuming Elston would be a pushover.

Elston was aggressive from the opening bell, rocking Bruiser with a devastating blow to the jaw.  Brown quickly shook it off and began to trade blows with Murray.  Murray had a longer reach than the champion, but Bruiser was quicker.  If Elston could keep Brown from getting too close, he’d be able to deliver blows with impunity.

The bout quickly turned into a rout.  Bruiser’s legendary quickness had been taken down a notch as the result of lackluster training and too much time spent at the buffet.  Murray pounded him relentlessly, with many observers wondering why the referee hadn’t stopped the fight.  When they came out for the final round, the champion’s face was bloodied and battered, and he could barely see out of his two black eyes.

Murray took it easy on Brown – letting him dance around and delivering blows to the body in order to avoid further damage to the pretty boy’s face.  Murray knew that he was far ahead on points and just needed to play defense for the final round in order to preserve a victory.  He’d walk away from the sport once again with enough money to retire.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the fight, Elston dropped his arms to his side.

He never saw the fist coming.  Before the referee was able to announce that Elston Murray had won a unanimous decision and was the new welterweight champion, Murray lay dead in the ring.

This weekend marks the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One.  Yep, the final Potter book is being split into two movies (part 2 due next July) in an effort to maximize revenue.

Honestly, this really isn’t the genre for me.  My favorite writers generally stay in the mystery and suspense genres (although the Preston/Child books swing a bit into the paranormal).  When I get tired of those writers, I have a backlog of classics to catch up on.  Quite honestly, the wizards, witches, and vampires that currently capture the attention of society are really not my cup of tea.  I haven’t read any of the Potter books, and was quickly bored when I saw one of the movies on TV.

Logically, then, you probably think that I’m not a fan of Harry.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

As disinterested as I am in the genre, I am thrilled to see young readers picking up a book – any book.  If the Harry Potter tomes are the gateway books to Shakespeare, Dickens, and Block, then J.K. Rowling is doing society a great service.  Just as interesting is the fact that many adults are getting into Potter – cracking open a book instead of spending time in front of the TV.

Even television – which I occassionally refer to as the “idiot box” has come into an era where there are many educational shows gaining in popularity.  I’ve always been a fan of crime shows (NCIS is my current favorite), and there are a ton of shows on TV that delve into the science of forensics (albeit sometimes in a sensationalistic fashion) as well as the inductive reasoning techniques used by detectives – techniques that can be quite valuable in solving real-life problems.

The upshot of all of this is that the old stereotype of smart people being “squares” and “not cool” is starting to erode, as smart characters take the lead in many popular books, movies, and television shows.  Anything that causes kids to have a positive view of education is a good thing, in my opinion.

The story behind the Harry Potter story is also interesting to me.  J.K. Rowling wrote the first book while on government aid and after beating back clinical depression.  How’s that for a Horatio Alger story?  The money that England spent on Rowling was pretty well spent – imagine how many millions she had paid in taxes over the years!  Additionally, Rowling is involved with a number of charities in Britain.

Last year I penned a “Things I Am Thankful For” article and I thought it would be fun to look back, see what I predicted and was thankful for then, and see if that still holds true today.

Last year I said, “I am thankful for my children. Two wonderful, healthy boys who were not “ruined” by my decision to breastfeed, delay solids until 6 months, baby wear and vaccinate. (I know, a crazy combination!)”  This year, I am thankful for my THREE wonderful, healthy boys. Unknown to me, I was already pregnant with our third child when I wrote that last year. I am still thankful for my children, and while three boys under 5 are quite a handful, I wouldn’t change anything.

I was thankful for my parents and my husband last year. I still am. I am also thankful that after the birth of our third son, my husband and I made the (difficult yet easy) decision for me to leave the corporate world and be a stay at home mom. While things are tight, I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world, either. I am also thankful that this year I am using my college degree while being a freelance writer at home (Suite101, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Mommy’s Recess). While calculating Pension was fun (yes, I know, I’m sick), it wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing with my degree in English. I get to do what I love while spending time with my boys. I am SO thankful for that.

And now on to the reason you love Crunchy. The Politics. Last year I said:

“I am thankful for 2010. This way we can give a nice retirement party to those who will vote for the healthcare bill.

I am thankful that 2012 is only 3 years away. I think Barack needs to spend a little more time in Chicago … as the FORMER President.”

Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT! TOOT! Did I call that one or what? Public option died and while the healthcare bill did pass, the people let their voice be heard and voted a lot of Legislators out. I wonder how all of those retirement parties are shaping up?

This year, I am thankful Americans are not allowing their Government to be hijacked by the uber libs. The House has been restored to Republican power and Crazy Pelosi has been demoted to Minority Leader (I still can’t believe they kept her in a power position). Next step, get the TSA agents under control. I am not a fan of the full body scans and I am against TSA agents depantsing the eldery and taking children into private rooms (without parents) while they stick their hand down the child’s pants. Being a TSA agent doesn’t give you the right to become a molester. Is this the punishment the American public is forced to take because we wouldn’t blindly accept the Administrations wishes? Not cool.

I am still thankful that the “Obamaworship” is WAY down. As of yesterday, only 26% of Americans Strongly Approve while 42% Strongly Disapprove. Finally people have decided that the grass isn’t greener.

I am thankful that President G.W. Bush is still a class act. While Obama has taken every chance to blame Bush, in a recent interview, Bush was asked if he approved of the job Obama was doing. He responded “President Obama has got plenty of critics and I’m just not going to be one.” Total class act. 

I am thankful that 2012 is only two years away. Palin, Gingrich, whoever it may be, will be better than “The Great Fingerpointer” we have in office now. That’s the kind of ‘change’ I’m ‘hoping’ for.

This Thanksgiving, keep in mind those less fortunate than us. But don’t feel too bad about the 64 Democrats who lost their seats (jobs) to Republicans. They brought it on themselves. I saw it coming a year ago. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. Hopefully you don’t have to fly anywhere.

[Editor’s note: we’re always looking for reporters to give account of the news with a local flavor.  Longtime reader Poch comes to us from the Philippines and gives his thoughts on the recent victory by Manny Pacquiao.  Check out Poch’s web site, Plato Press.]

When my great fellow countryman Manny ‘PacMan’ Pacquiao started dipping his toes in politics, I somewhat lost faith in him thinking he’s a fool. I should know – I risked my life during the EDSA Uprising in 1986 and after all, corruption still reigned.

Then comes this Pacquiao-Margarito fight when PacMan was already an elected congressman after some election failures. When I heard after the bout that his opponent Margarito was 17 pounds heavier, I thought with awe “What more miracle would this man do?”  (When PacMan was the same bantamweight with me, I imagined and itched of fighting with him)

And so now the House of Representatives is preparing a hero’s party for him. “We’ll prepare as best as we can”, the Speaker of the House said.

What PacMan’s fellow citizens are saying (quotes are from the Philippine Daily Inquirer – most were translated from the local language):

• “He becomes a symbol of hope, that one could work hard and be successful”, a kitchen helper said.
• Many are wondering why Pacquiao didn’t knock down Margarito when it seemed easy for PacMan to. “Manny is truly a gentleman”, a female accountant commented. “In the 11th and 12th rounds, he could have knocked out Margarito but he didn’t to avoid making worse the latter’s condition.”
• “I pity Margarito“, a public jeepney driver said. “He tore off PacMan’s photo in a magazine during Solar’s prefight interview… Now it was Margarito’s turn to be torn.”
• The most overheard comment about Margarito’s arrogance: “Serves him right for being so cocksure.”

I still think politics would ruin our dear PacMan and hope that it wouldn’t be so.

[Editor’s note: Check out more PacMan coverage on the Inquirer’s web site – there’s a special section for him.]

Much better weekend of games this week. Good thing I was not on record with picks last week as they would have been pathetic to say the least.

Texas looks like they will not be bowl eligible. Wow. National Title game to no bowl game.

Cam Newton still in the news although it has quieted down somewhat. Biggest football story of the weekend was Michael Vick’s performance in Monday night football. 6 Touchdowns…..who does he think he is? Gale Sayers?

Georgia State @ Alabama (-56.5) – Seriously who cares? Alabama 112,963 – GA State 4

 UCLA @ Washington (-2.5) – Which Bruins team shows up this week. A winning one! UCLA – 28 – Wash – 24

Friday

Fresno State @ Boise State (-30.5) –  Battle of states that don’t exist. Boise Needs style points on the smurf turf. BSU – 45- FSU – 14

 Saturday

Wisconsin (-6.5) @ Michigan – Power running vs small guy fast running. I take power running. Cheeseheads – 35- Mich – 28

Purdue @ Michigan State (-20.5) – Purdon’t covers! MSU – 31- PUR – 21

North Carolina State @ North Carolina (-2.5) – Battle of North Carolina. Give me powder Blue – NC – 21- NC State – 17

Stanford (-7.5) @ California – Andrew Luck for Heisman – Stan 21- Cal – 14

Thuh Ohio State (-3.5) @ Iowa – Buckeyes different on road, but Iowa is seriously overrated. OSU 28- IA 14

Virginia Tech (-2.5) @ Miami – Hurrigangsters different team at home. Upset special. Miami – 17. Va Tech 14

Illinois (-7.5) @ Northwestern – No Dan Persa, No Chance. Illinois 35- NW – 21

Mississippi @ LSU (-16.5) – Bengal tigers good one week not so good next but keep winning. LSU 12- Miss St – 9

Nebraska (-2.5) @ Texas A&M – Taylor Martinez 100%? More like 65% Blackshirts still good enough. Nebs – 31- A&M 21

Oklahoma (-7.5) @ Baylor – Boooooooomer Soooooner, they could still win the South. OU – 31- Baylor – 28

USC (-3.5) @ Oregon State – Ore St lost to Wazoo last week…..wowie. USC -32- Ore St 10

My buddy Lazy Man took a break from thrusting his lance into Mona Vie to take aim at another product, Protandim from LifeVantage.  After a spirited (and a bit strange) debate, one of the supporters of the product took the unexpected leap to the “the IRS is a scam” argument.  At which point, any credibility he had was completely gone.  The whole idea of the IRS not having the right to collect taxes is a myth propagated by a small segment of the population.  The IRS has actually debunked a variety of bogus arguments on their web site, citing relevant case law so that you can look it up if you decide not to take their word for it.

Last week, I read a story about a man who took his computer into a repair shop in 2004 and ended up with a $6 million bill (it’s actually true – here’s the article from the New York Times).  The unethical shop owner told the victim (Roger Davidson) that there was indeed a virus on his computer.  Later, he told Davidson that the source of the virus was found on a hard drive in a remote part of Honduras.  Even worse, it was part of a plot by Polish priests affiliated with Opus Dei – they were trying to infiltrate the US government!  Again, I remind you this this actually happened – it’s not some new Dan Brown novel.

Several years ago, I overheard a lady in the new row of cubicles talking about the unfortunate death of her grandmother.  As it turns out, since nobody else’s name was on her grandma’s bank accounts, they money went “in to the state”.  I nearly did a facepalm as a realized that the grandma had died “intestate”, that is, without a will.  In those cases, the assets are distributed to heirs according to the state’s law of intestate succession.  In general, the closest living relatives get the assets.  You do not simply forfeit your assets to the state if you die without a will.

It seems that people have lost their BS detector at some point.  It’s actually pretty sad, since there are a lot of resources to use when debunking myths.  The venerable Snopes debunks pretty much anything – and is a great site to browse even when you’re not in debunking mode.  Some people quibble with the question of whether or not political debunking sites like FactCheck are unbiased, but the fact of the matter is that they will at least give you a starting point for reasearch.  Want to do your debunking in front of the TV – MythBusters.

I’m not suggesting that you automatically assume that everything is a lie – but take things with a grain of salt.  When you hear something that sounds absolutely incredible, do a bit of research before believing it – even if you hear it from your mom.  In the case of the man with the computer virus from Honduras – take a step back and get a second opinion!  If you take a moment to do a bit of research, you’ll find a multitude of tools that can help you debunk or affirm an argument.

What do you do when you hit a writing block?

Well actually, I haven’t run into a writing block, I have simply not been writing during the effort to write a novel during the month of November. For this article, let’s pretend that I am sharing the problems of not knowing what to write.

First you must find a trigger. It could be something as simple as standing up and looking out the window. Who knows what you will see. It could be your character walking past, or the exact weather you need to describe. Get up and have something to eat. Maybe the people in your story need to eat as well.

If that does not work, perhaps you need a longer break. Take a walk, go shopping or go see a movie. I would suggest avoiding TV or surfing the web as these activities really chew up valuable time, while a movie or walk have definite ending points.

If you are still stuck, try a different writing event. Throw together a quick blog of anything you are working on. If you don’t have anywhere else to post, paste it as a response to my posting.

There is always a topic that you like to talk about, convert that into writing, just to keep the words coming. Eventually, you will drift back to the story that you want to finish.

I still recommend establishing deadlines for yourself, both to keep yourself honest and to drive towards completion. You can use events line National Novel Writing Month, or a short story completion. You may want to make a holiday or birthday as the deadline, especially if you want you story to be a present to a friend or family member. All that we write provides insight and entertainment. Keep writing even if you do not want so show anyone else your work.

After nearly five years of trusty service, my 1999 Ford Taurus began to experience a problem in the spring of 2004.  The speedometer would be accurate up to about 25 mph, but they would bounce wildly between 25 mph and 85 mph, regardless of the actual speed being driven.

At first, this was an infrequent problem, and then became gradually more common.  Of course, the problem never occurred when I took the car into the shop.  One of the mechanics apologized for his inability to troubleshoot the problem.  My response was that I worked in information technology and could fully understand the problem of a machine not reproducing a problem when you wanted it to (computers are notorious for this).

Some online research strongly suggested that the problem was with the vehicle speed sensor – an opinion that was backed up by some car experts in my office.  I had an extended warranty on the car, so the necessary repairs would be paid for, minus a small deductible.

The only problem was that the warranty company wouldn’t pay for a repair without the shop getting a reading from the onboard computer.  This made sense to me – they didn’t want to keep replacing parts until the shop fixed the problem by trial and error.  I continued to experience the problem – except for the times when I took it into the shop.  One time, the problem occurred for an entire weekend, only to cease on Monday when I took it in.

It was during this time that I learned that you really don’t need a speedometer.  You can gauge your rough speed by looking at the tachometer (engine RPMs).  This does vary a bit on hills, but you can make a rough estimate of your speed.  So I was able to drive the car without getting any speeding tickets, which was a small victory.  However, I was unable to use cruise control, which really sucked.

Finally, one weekend, the problem took a turn for the worse.  Not only was the speedometer not properly registering speeds above 25 mph, but the car was actually not moving any faster than 25.  There were some long drives that weekend.

At around 6:00 AM on Monday, I took a long drive down to the Ford dealer.  It was still early enough that the well-traveled road to the deal didn’t have many cars on it yet.  That’s exactly why I choose this time of day, of course – to minimize the risk of an accident.  The dealership opened at 8, so I pulled out a book and read for 90 minutes.

The dealership was able to get the Taurus looked at right away – and the computer was still throwing an error code.  Imagine my “surprise” when it indicated that the vehicle speed sensor was faulty.  A few minutes later, I was back on the road with a fully functioning speedometer.

The elections are over, “the people have spoken,” and as far as I can tell, we’re still a heavily divided country.  Partisanship has reached a fervor not seen in US politics before.  It’s beginning to match the rivalry you normally see reserved for Yankees vs. Red Sox or Duke vs UNC.  Remember the bank bailouts?  They’re once again making near-record profits, and all indications point to them still not making small business loans.  For the last 2 years the Republicans have whined about how the Democrats haven’t been bi-partisan, haven’t reached across the aisle, yet they’ll be even less accommodating in the house for the next 2 years.  Who are the ultimate losers in all this?

We are.

Not the politicians.  Not the corporations.  The average Joe and Jill.

Partisan politics is great for stump speeches, to rally your base, and to be able to point to your record the next time you’re up for re-election, but in the vast majority of elections 40% still voted for the other guy.  When someone is voted into office, they take an oath to serve the whole city, state, or country they serve, not just the people who just happened to vote for them.  It’s gotten to such a level of “us vs. them” that it’s not even an extreme ideology to claim “he’s not MY president” – I’m certainly guilty about saying that of Bush, although that’s as much from me thinking Cheney really ran the country as anything else.  There’s been so much joking about certain southwest states seceding it’s not even a joke any more, and you’d probably get support in the thousands of people in those states (and a larger number in the other 48) of those who would truly and actually want to see it happen.

So what can solve this problem of division?  Well, throughout history a common enemy was always a good rallying tool, but this “war on terrorism” is just another point of contention.  Your average Republican just wants to throw more money at the Pentagon and use fear to get votes.  Your average Democrat is spineless enough to cave into the fear to not lose votes.  Meanwhile anyone perceived as having any kind of ties to anything middle-eastern is seen as an enemy and if they weren’t an enemy before we’re well on the way to making them a new one.  Besides, war should always be the absolute last option, the option you try when you’ve exhausted every other one.  If any politician wants to get my vote on national defense they’d have to outline a solid plan of upgrading the power grid, safeguarding our ports, and setting up a new government agency to deal with cyber-attacks.  I’m sure your average Tea Partier or conservative would decry that as simply more government spending, though, but while making those claims the military would continue to throw billions at aircraft carriers, tanks, and jet fighters.  Because those are so useful against Al-Qaeda. 

Heck, on the subject of “the party of small government” here’s a nice little factoid:  under the modern Republican demi-god, Reagan, the government grew at a faster rate than the Carter administration.  The G.W. Bush administration created one of the largest government departments our country has ever seen.  I guess when you combine that with not putting the cost of Iraq or Afghanistan on the books, they should change that slogan to “the party of small government, except in times of war.”  Oh, wait, they’re the hawkish party too, aren’t they?

The 2 party system is certainly part of the problem.  I sometimes doubt we even have 2 parties, just 1 group of politicians who join one club or the other to help move their career.  We need a viable 3rd party, or even a 4th one but that’s not likely to happen with the way Washington is currently run.  Politics is without a doubt an insiders game, and one of the biggest promises Obama gave was to change that, but it certainly hasn’t happened and won’t as long as campaign funding is allowed in the current form.  The solution?  Make corporate political donations illegal and have a manditory public fund for legitimate candidates.  Lower the cap on individual donations so politics doesn’t remain a rich-people-only club.  Make any kind of political media 100% transparent in terms of finance.

When politics is so partisan that Republican leaders are saying their primary goal is to make Obama a 1 term president, we’re all losers.  We the people should be their primary goal, and we’re all in this together.  When our country is divided, the only winners are the corporations, and as time marches on more and more of them are owned by non-Americans or ship their money overseas.