Kids change everything

If anybody has been looking at these blogs, then you will notice over the past few months not a lot of action has occurred. That's due to the arrival of my new daughter, Sara. Take a look:

Pretty cute, huh? Yeah, I think so, and not just because she sprung from my loins. In any event, she has been keeping me and her mother pretty busy since she was born in September. Besides the usual chaos of our jobs, family, simply living in the Boston area (driving without killing someone around here is a full-time job, for more click here), and trying to maintain some semblance of a relationship with each other, all our "free" time is taken up with her.

I *will* get back to blogging...it is, however, distinctly possible that any future blogs will be much shorter than my previous ramblings. Yes, it is true that kids do change everything. I'm firmly convinced they teach us adults much if not more than we could ever teach them. I for one have learned (reluctantly) much over the past few weeks. I've learned about myself, my priorities, and the gravity of the decisions I contemplate. I need to put together many more variables when making choices, sometimes to my own chagrin. I also have become used to less sleep, although Sara is really, really good in that regard. Much better, I'm told, than other babies. I've learned to value my time alone due mainly to its extreme scarcity. I've learned to use that  time to my advantage as much as possible and actually have gotten a lot done. Seems that, when you are acutely aware that you have little time, you waste much less of it and manage, somehow, to actually make things happen. Not sure I completely understand this phenomenon yet. Not sure I understand this kid thing yet. Perhaps I never will. Perhaps that's the way God intended it to be.

Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year!

tom

Driving in Boston is a contact sport

I've lived in Boston for nearly 4 years now. In the heart of the city, driving a car is something that simply must be experienced. It cannot be adequately explained to the unaware. I know, because for years friends of mine would tell me how "horrible" and "scary" it is to drive in Boston. I would chuckle, thinking to myself "these guys are light-weights" or "they just don' t know how to drive" or some other such thing. Boy was I wrong.

After being here for a while, living in Somerville, and driving a lot through Cambridge, Brighton, Medford, and of course Boston proper, I've learned that driving a car in Boston is indeed a contact sport. You simply cannot be distracted for one second without taking your life, the life of someone else, or at minimum the condition of your car's bumper in your own hands.

I'm convinced the problem is a combination of two things:

1. Overall population density, and
2. Cumulative apathy resulting in obnoxious and agressive behaviour.

It's as simple as that. There are simply too many people (on bikes, walking, and driving) on the streets for the available space. Add to that the real fact that there are way too few cops to enforce the laws (therefore everybody knows they will not get caught behaving badly), and you have a situation similar to the wild-wild-west days of yore. Don't believe me? Come here, rent a car, and see for yourself.

So what's the solution? I'm not sure there is an easy solution to a problem that has been nutured so carefully over time. Yes, nutured. As dangerous as it is, many a Bostonian wears this reality like a badge of honor on their person. Yes, it's crazy, and many of them love it. You can tell who they are; they are the ones driving the beat-up cars and careening around the city, blaring their horns, like madmen on a mission. They don't want things to change because they get away with near murder every day. If you were like them, you wouldn't want things to change either.

They are not the majority of Bostonians. However, the majority of Bostonians look the other way (while blaring their horns, that is just a fact of life here). People who can't take it anymore stay as far away from the city as possible or at least minimize their travel into the city. And life (such that it is) goes on.

My only suggestion to the cities in and around the Boston area: If you want to make a little money, station cops at every streetcorner, and simply ENFORCE THE LAWS. That means all laws, traffic, pedestrian, and biking. Everyone is equally to blame here. I'm sure the town governments would clean up in the near term. And, perhaps, in the longer term, people might learn to behave like adults. But I wouldn't count on it.

Whither Don Imus

OK...just to be clear, yes Don Imus is a putz. A moron. A goofball. The difference with my opinion of him vs. some others is that I held this opinion before he got into such hot water. And I still hold it.

Don Imus is an idiot that made a lot of money being controversial. This time, it appears, he stepped over the line by directing his inflammatory insults to a group of college girls that did not deserve it AND were not public figures that get no such consideration. OOPs. Sorry bout that.

Don't worry. My guess is that Imus will find an audience for his crappy comments somewhere. Seems satellite radio is where all the "nasty" type people are flocking to, just like cable-TV is where soft-core porn went to 20 years ago. 20 years later, cable TV has supplanted over-the-air TV as the medium of choice because it essentially skirts certain regulatory bodies in favor of marketplace-regulated content. Satellite radio will be the over-the-air counterpart to cable TV in this fashion. It may take 20 years, but I'm certain we'll see relatively few idiot commentators like Imus, Stern, etc., and much more quality, yet less strickly regulated, content. The marketplace does work, it simply takes time.

The bigger issue here, is NOT Don Imus. It's US. Don Imus is not the problem. He is merely a symptom. A symptom of a sickness we all share. A sickness of culture; a culture that wants "more, more, more" and screams constantly to get it and showers the people who give it to them with accolates to spur them on. Then, when some poor schmuck like Donny boy steps over some invisible line in the sand (only visible after the fact), we surrupticiously crucify him in the name of "decency". Shame on Don Imus? Shame on US.

People like Don Imus would not be around if there were not a market for his crap. Probably a large market. We need to face the facts that people are simply inherently flawed. Should we tolerate his comments? No way. But then again, we should never have in the first place.

Cell Phones are a menace

If you ever are driving and see someone up ahead who is acting like they are drunk in the middle of rush hour, it's probably because they are on a cell phone.

Drunk drivers are no longer the most dangerous folks on the roads these days. People with cell phones adhered to their heads are. Sure, they both have scary similarities. Slow moving, yet prone to rapid, unpredicable accelleration. Weaving, making quick turns into/outof driveways, parking lots, across sidewalks, over lawns. God help you if you are in their way.

Cell phones are like alchohol to some people. There are people out there who cannot "handle" talking, just like there are people who cannot handle drinking. It's the same thing. Give an alcoholic a bottle, and they attach it to their head. Give a talker a cell phone, and they attach it to their head. And, when driving, both can be very dangerous.

If you happen to be one of these poor soles, you have my sympathy. If you happen to be one of them and are on the road, please, for yourself, and especially for the rest of us, get off the damn phone and drive.

Airlines "Passenger bill of rights" - will it be effective?

This seems to come up every time there is a big enough weather event to piss off a large enough segment of the traveling population. Last week's winter storm was such an event. Click here to read about it.

As a result, JetBlue has taken the initiative to create a "passenger bill of rights" that will deal with what you can expect as a JetBlue customer if (and when) something like this occurs again. Click here to get the story about the Bill of Rights.

This is not the first time, by a long shot, that customers have been stranded on the tarmac, no food or water in sight, with no clean or sometimes even working toilets available. Conditions that start to approach being locked up in a third-world country jail, all for the exorbitant price of an airline ticket. I know, for being a frequent-flyer (or "frequent" as the airlines call us), I've personally experienced this several times over the past 15 years. My personal worst was being stuck on the runway in Atlanta after they got 3 inches of snow. Doesn't seem like much snow, does it? Well, if you are in Atlanta, with NO SNOW REMOVAL EQUIPMENT, 3 inches is a Hell of a lot! How long was I stuck on a plane with no power, no lights, no heat, no food, no water? Approximately SIX HOURS. Not a lot of fun.

Don't think for one minute that JetBlue is doing this out of the goodness of their heart, or that they really care about Passenger's rights. Here's the real reason. Congress is now paying attention, and is discussing the possibility of legislation that will impose penalties on Airlines for improper behaviour. That is what Airlines like JetBlue are trying to circumvent by such "self-regulation". They hope to show Congress that they don't need to be regulated. I hope they fail, because I don't think these guys can be trusted. This has been going on for way too long.

UPDATE: JetBlue just posted details about their Bill of Rights proposal. Whatever happens, this may spur the industry to behave in a more human manner. Anything would be an improvement.

Immigration reform - come on!

This is another one of my pet peeves. The "difficult" problem of immigration reform. So many polititicans, with so many laws, bills, amendments, etc. that they have, will, or want to put into our legal system, spending so much of our time, effort, and money to "solve" yet another problem that can be traced to basic human emotions and motivations.

Let's review some of the facts:

1. We have over 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States today.
2. The vast majority of the illegal immigrants have little education and/or are quite poor.
3. The vast majority of the illegal immigrants came to the United States to get jobs that, by their standards, were much better than they could get where they were.
4. The vast majority of them are taking jobs that legal Americans would not take, given the same pay and working conditions.
5. Most of them come to the US through our porous southern border.

Assuming you agree with these facts, which most rational people do, what's the problem? These folks come here, work at jobs nobody wants, and no one gets hurt, right? Wrong. The problem is that these folks generate more than the positives of income and revenue. They also generate costs. Costs in the form of health care and education.

1. Health Care. Most illegals have no health insurance (how can they?). This is one of the main reasons they can work for such low wages (no deductions!). But what do they do if they or their family members get sick? They go the emergency room. This is by far the most expensive way to treat people, and our poorest people are being treated this way en masse. Most emergency rooms cannot and will not turn away anybody if they are sick (not just emergencies, but any type of sickness). They don't ask. They just treat.
2. Education. Again, since famiily members of illegals need education (in fact, this is the second most desired benefit of coming here), of course they send their children to our public schools. Our public school systems are more than happy to accomodate them. Since illegals pay no taxes, this accommodation is FREE for them. Of course, it is not really free.
   

So who pays for all this? YOU DO. Meaning, anybody who is legally here, who pays taxes and health care costs legally. And sure, some illegals do pay some taxes, but since thier incomes are so low, I guarantee you they are taking out much, much more than they are putting in.

What is the net effect of all this?

The net effect is that all of us who pay taxes and legally pay for health care in the United States are in effect subsidizing a bunch of fat-cat companies and employers that are too cheap to pay the "market price" for getting work done in the US. So they hire illegals, and pass the cost onto all of us in the form of higher health care and Federal, State, and local taxes.

We are essentially trading off cheaper housing, food, and clothing costs for higher taxes and higher health care costs. And I think the tradeoff sucks, mainly because in between the transaction these employers are taking a huge, illegal, and invisible, profit. We have no idea how much more they are making by employing illegals. We have no idea how much these poor folks are suffering by crappy and unsafe working conditions, low wages, and little protection under the law. And we really don't know how much, if at all, less we are actually paying for these "cheaper" goods, since we can't know how much of that profit the employers are actually passing along to us. My opinion? Not much!

And, all during this, we get inundated with these ridiculous proposals for 600 mile long fences, armed guards, interdiction, etc., all designed to keep out the throngs of illegal immigrants.

Poppycock!!

The ONLY way to get illegal immigration under control is to attack the motivation for why people come here.

They want a better life, and from their point of view, we have it. We need to make it very hard to come here and get a job illegally, and very easy to come here legally and obey the rules!! Only when we do this will we be able to control our borders. I am not addressing the terrorism issue here, that is the subject of a different blog. Rather I mean control from the standpoint of being confident that our workforce is, by and large, staffed by legal Americans and immigrants.

It is simply ludicrous that intelligent, literate, upstanding people who can and want to contribute positively to American society are continually hindered from legal immigration, while any bum who wants to can run across our border and get an illegal job. And the ONLY reason that person is risking his life and family is because some fat-cat scumbag employer is willing to break existing laws to hire him, because he knows he won't get caught. How does that make sense?


So here is my proposal for immigration reform:

• Unique IDs. Every man, woman, and/or child that wants to work legally in the US needs to be uniquely identified. I'm not going to design the system here; I'll leave that to the technical folks, but rest assured (since I am one of them) this is NOT HARD. Today we have passports, driver's licenses, etc. that go part of the way. We need to go all of the way. And yes, if that means embedding an RFID chip in the forearm of every worker in the US, then so be it. If you want to work here, too bad.
• Punishment. Not for the illegals. FOR THE EMPLOYERS. Believe me, they all know who they are. And they are laughing all the way to the bank. We need strong laws with swift, severe punishment for employers who knowingly employ illegal immigrants. I guarantee you, if the source of jobs dries up, people who are here illegally will leave as fast as they came. Since the employers will wine that they can't do it easily, we need the unique ID system in bullet 1 so they don't get let off the hook. Once there is a system in place that law enforcement can administrate, believe me, these guys will snap into line.
  
• Clean up the existing laws. I'm sorry, but we simply have some very stupid laws on the books for no reason. The most ridiculous one is that a person here illegally can have a baby and, the instant the child is born, the child is a US citizen. No other country has this law. Why do you think that is? Is it perhaps because it encourages illegal immigration? Of course it does. We need to grandfather existing cases, change the law, and move on.
• Monitor the borders. I think fences are an incredibly stupid idea. But with technology we can measure the movement of people across the borders. How many moved last month? Last year? We should know this stuff, if for nothing more than to measure the effectiveness of our ongoing policies.

That's it. Simple, huh? I think so. As with so, so many issues in this country. we have a preponderance of people who will not see, and have no will to act. This is typically not because they are stupid, rather they have different agendas. Agendas that they don't want you and I to know about. Because they are getting rich off of them. At our expense.

Separation of Church and State

The United States was founded on many principles, one key principle being freedom of religion. The US Government shall not impede the free practice of religious beliefs. That does not mean the US Government shall promote any one religious belief, despite the fact that over 95% of Americans are Christians.

"Separation of Church and State" - One of the more interesting concepts upon which our country was, supposedly, founded. In actuality, it merely refers to a passage in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, but the idea caught on and was popularized into our system of government. Again, in principle, it is a great idea.

Unfortunately our application of this concept is far from perfect. If we were to truly separate church and state, I firmly belive many of our contemporary problems would be severely reduced and perhaps eliminated entirely. Here are some examples:

1. Stem Cell research. I've blogged about this before. The problems arise here when our government supports with funding the use of human embryos for research. Some folks believe that this is killing. It is part of their religion. If Chuch and State were truly separate, this debate would not be taking place this way. See my other blog for more.

2. Gay Marriage. What a rat-hole! The very question "Do you support Gay Marriage?" is a trap. It is the very formulation of that question that is in error. IF you allow yourself to answer, you have already lost the argument (not to mention missed the point). The very use of the term "MARRIAGE" in the context of any government-related activity (e.g. getting a "marriage license") is the root of the fundamental problem here. The exact same term, "marriage", is used by both the Church and the State, but they mean distinctly different things. The Catholic Church (as one example) defines "marriage" as a "union under God between a man and a woman". Period. The State defines "marriage" in a way as to ensure certain legal protections and civil and legal rights. These are NOT the same things. Thus the problem. This is a simply case of an "overloaded" term. IF Church and State were truly separate, we would use different terms for each function, and the problem would be solved. For example, we could call the RELIGIOUS UNION between a man and a woman, sanctioned by their respective church, as "MARRIAGE". Then, we could call the CIVIL UNION between two people, as specified by GOVERNMENTAL LAW, as "UNION", or some other acceptable term. The church has their activity, sanctioned by the church, with their own licenses, etc., and the government has theirs. PROBLEM SOLVED.

As you can see, if we truly had a clear, concise, crisp separation between Chuch and State, things would be simpler, and there would be less conflict. Why do our religious leaders and politicians let this continue? I'm not sure; perhaps we should ask them.

Perhaps our political leaders don't want this severe a separation. Perhaps they are not comprehending the true principle here. For, although we absolutely need and require adequate separation between Church and State, we will never achieve (nor should we pursue) separation between Religion and Politics. These concepts are, although related, distinctly different.

My opinion is that it's a combination of ego, stubborness, thick-headedness, and ignorance. The things that can be blamed for most of the problems in the world. Let's face it: "making the world a better place" is simply not the highest thing on most peoples goal sheets these days. We all have our own agendas. Sad, but true.