Eldritch Bone of Contention

A Looking Back at Obama's First Week

2009-01-25T22:18:00.006-05:00

Obama is settling into the White House and getting right to work with the Executive Orders. From what I've seen so far, there's no big surprises given what we have seen the last couple of months since the election. During the transition process, I think that we have seen a glimpse of a more centrist President. As a conservative leaning libertarian, I think I'm pleased so far with what I've seen. Ironically, one of my friends who supported and voted for Obama, is actually having buyer's remorse. Not that he would have voted McCain, but Obama apparently is not living up to his expectations.

Obviously, the biggest news that I heard coming out of conservatives where the Executive Orders regarding interrogations and the closure of the prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay. More to my surprise, however, was the outlandish "news" about these items that I heard from my mother Friday. According to the news that she heard, the President ordered Gitmo closed in 10 days and for all the prisoners to be released. Wow, I was floored. I tried to explain to her that where ever it was that her coworker got that news from was grossly misinformed. Mom defended the erroneous news, claiming that it was from a "news website". The thing is, though, is that there is no reason to get false information from poor "news" websites when you can get the actual text right from the source at www.whitehouse.gov.

Just for those who don't keep up with the actual text, Gitmo will not be closed in 10 days, but within the year [Sec. 3]. All the prisoners will not be released to go wherever they want to do whatever they wish. Instead, their cases will be reviewed, and those who should be prosecuted will finally go to court to be tried, as they should [Sec. 4]. In the meantime, we will cease interrogation methods that board, or cross into, torturer and rely on the existing Army codes regarding interrogation. So it seems that there is hope that we may return to Franklin's ideal of putting liberty above temporary safety once again.

Another thing that has been bothering my is the whole ordeal involving the oath of office being misspoken by Chief Justice Roberts. It was a blunder, a goof-up, and sometimes it happens. Going by memory was probably not the best idea, but it was not a big deal. Besides, do you think the Supreme Court would really nullify Obama's Presidency because it's own Chief - the head of the body responsible for interpreting the Constitution - made a minor misquote? I doubt it. I've also heard a few people wondering if the second oath is nullified as there was no bible. Just an FYI, Section 1 of the Constitution makes no mention of the bible, or any other manuscript or deity, when it comes to the oath, aside from the obvious mention to upholding and protecting the Constitution (I'm looking at you, Mr. Miller).

The final bit from the week that I want to mention was the video address by Obama on Saturday. I think it was a fairly good address. I have to say that as a libertarian, I really do not like the idea of more government programs, but unfortunately we are not in ideal times. Government spending is one productive way to get money back into the economy. Tax cuts are another option, and under normal conditions, I'd prefer the tax cuts. I'd much rather spend my money the way I want instead of having the government spend it on projects that I may not support. But with the economy in the mess that it is in, I have to admit that tax cuts might not be the best of ideas. Either way, the money needs to be spent in order to benefit the economy, so there needs to be a balance between tax cuts and government spending. But when you consider that individuals with the money are more likely to horde it instead of getting it into circulation, then it make since that the government spending by a higher priority than I would like it. The government spending may be slow to help, but individuals sitting on their dollars won't help at all.

Sweet Shuttle Pics!

2008-04-04T10:42:00.003-04:00

If you are at all fascinated with the space program, then you should check out these sweet pics. It is really amazing the work that goes into getting that bird off the ground. And the scale of it all is staggering!

The Bad Astronomer Takes on Anti-Trans Fat

2008-04-04T09:35:00.004-04:00

There's a really good thread going on right now at Bad Astronomy concerning, of all things, trans-fat in HoHos. The comments range nicely from topics of the health issues of trans fats, to government regulations in general, to universal health care. There's even a few tasty recipes included.

I've included several post in the comments, but just to sum my points up in one place...

On Trans-fats:
I need to do more research on this. I know the health issues involved, but the comments that some people have left range from "the smallest amount of trans-fats are very dangerous" to "trans-fat, with moderation, is not that dangerous, and even appears in food naturally, like milk". I tend to be on the "everything in moderation" camp on most issues, but if there are better alternatives to trans-fat, I'm all for it.

On Phil's Tingling Taste Buds:
A lot of people made the comment that trans fat has no taste. But does it have an effect on the other ingredients and their flavors? That's quite possible, as such devices are used in cooking and baking all the time. However, as other's have pointed out, there are several other things that could be the cause of the poor quality HoHos (aside from them all being poor quality). Did other parts of the recipe change? Did the manufacturer start using cheaper, i.e. lower quality ingredients? Was the package that BA got just an old package? As was said often, a single tasting, from a batch that were on sale to boot, is not enough to make a judgment.

On Government Regulation:
Personally, I dislike government regulation. My gut feeling is that if the consumer choses not to figure out what they are putting into their bodies, they should live with the consequences. Of course, I general go about my day with just as little regard of the items that I consume (maybe I should have checked the soda fountain nozzle at the QuikTrip this morning for mold). There are some things that I don't mind the government regulating - to me, it make since that they regulate driving and hazardous materials. But regulating trans fat and the health vs yumminess? Were does the line get drawn?

On Universal Health Care:
I have my doubts about the plans that politicians are floating around concerning health care. When I think of government controlled health care and insurance, I think of the problems that my step-dad had with Medicare. I recall when even on unemployment and our household income shrunk to 60% of what it was, We could not get food stamps because we still made too much money. I think about how I will never get Social Security, despite paying thousands of dollars into it over the last 15 years, and will continue to do so until the system collapses. Then I wonder, do I really want these same people to control how my health plan works?

I recognize that the current market situation is broken, but I'm not sure if I want to turn it all over to the federal government. But if such plans are in our future, I'd rather such plans be at the state level, or that at the very least let us wait and see how it plays out in Massachusetts first. In the mean time, I think that if we shifted the current benefits of medical insure from group plans to individuals plans, we'd see some improvements right away.

Think about it. The first step would be to actually make the insurance market competitive again. The best way to do that would be to encourage individuals to take control of their health plans again. But don't they already? No. Chances are, they belong to a group plan and their bosses have the control. Their bosses may not decide on the insurance with the best benefits and service and cost for the employees - they are going to choose the plan that gives the best benefit to the company.

So we as individuals don't shop around for insurance, we just take what our company gives us. And why wouldn't we? Even if the company doesn't pay for part of the employee's premium, they still get the advantages of the tax deductible payments, which are taken out of their paychecks before taxes are calculated. Compare that to the person who has to spend 7.5% of the income on medical expenses before that premium is deductible (and trust me, that happens) and even if they can claim it, they don't get the benefits from it until the get their return back...in May...of the next year. On top of that, there's also the little issue that the protections under HIPPA, such as portibility of previously covered conditions, so not apply to individual plans, meaning that an individual may get struck with poor service and high premiums because they can't leave their current provider.

I think that government regulation should come not in the form of restrictions, penalties, and forced participation on the people, but through regulation of the two industries which have very little competition. The regulations need to come in a way to encourage competition in the industries, so that people will have choices and that companies that attempt to screw their users will be punished in the form of lost customers.

As for those who would not be able to afford coverage even if prices fall due to competition, yeah we should help them to a reasonable extent. Honestly, I have no problems helping the family of four who struggle just to live in that run down shack, who walk five miles to the grocery because they cannot afford a car and who work hard for the little that they can get. But I have troubles with the idea of helping those who chose not to help themselves. Those who continue to have children even when they account afford to properly care for the three they already have. Who take the little that they do get and use it to buy junk and use their food stamps to buy chips, cola, candy and trans-fat laden hohos instead of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods.

And for those who encounter extreme hardships due to the severity of their illness or injury, I also have no problem in helping them to a reasonable extent. If someone get an illness that cost them 6 digits in expenses and the insurance won't cover it all, then yeah, we should probably help them. But if we find that they have a half million dollar home, then they should consider moving into a 150,000 home first, then we can talk about help.

Alright, time to dismount the soap box...

Egads! What a week!

2008-03-24T11:47:00.000-04:00

A rough week to be sure. The plan that I came up with last week was to make one post per week on any topic that I felt worth covering. That way, I wouldn’t spend all my time here and there making several small, insignificant post and could instead concentrate and put some thought and research into a couple of longer, well prepared post. So week one is completed and what do I have to show for it. Nothing. Why? Well, it was a hell of a week.

First off, I spent the entire week starting at data. See, I’m currently working with a company migrating several existing Oracle tables to MySQL tables. After much effort, we’re finally ready to move to the MySQL. Problem is that some of the numbers are matching the Oracle tables, and we’re not sure why. Lots of fun there.

We also had the shock of two personal tragedies at home. First, we just found out that one of my closest aunt’s has terminal cancer. She’s been fighting it for a while now, but we didn’t know until recently just how sever it all was. The second bit of news was that on Monday, my wife’s step-mother was ran off the road by some driver. She’s fine, but she hit a telephone pole which fell and killed someone else. So now the police are investigating and possible charges of vehicular manslaughter are possibly on the horizon. Note to self: Get a dash board cam…

While that happened on Monday, we didn’t find out about it until Friday. About an hour later, I got the news that my contract would be terminated in three weeks. The additional budget that had been planned to extend it until August was cancelled. So now I’m in the job hunt, high gear. Which is why I haven’t posted this week.

I will be putting up some brief stuff later, but for now, that’s about it. It’s not my plan to make this blog all personal and everything, but there you go.

Really Great Post at Bad Astronomy

2008-03-13T16:36:00.004-04:00

Phil Plait has long been a hero of mine. I first found his site way back in 1999 and loved it. Boy has it changed! Any way, the Bad Astronomer (or BA, as he is known) posted a really great entry today on his site with some facts on the Milky Way that you may not know.

This is great stuff, and Phil has a great writing still. You can feel his enthusiasm and excitement when he writes. And he knows how to make things seem so simple.

Welcome to the Eldritch Bone of Contention

2008-03-12T11:44:00.001-04:00

First things first: I have delusions of grandeur here. Well, at least as the blog is concerned, I don't. I've been involved with the web for many, many years. I'm aware of the fact that I'm one of millions, of people with a web presence and that, quite frankly, most of them are far more important, influential, or entertaining than I am. That's fine. In the interest of honesty, I'm doing this more for me than you any ways.

As this is the first post, I feel a little obliged to tell anyone you may stumble upon this in the future a little about why I'm doing this and what I plan on doing in the future. Like everyone, I have opinions, and I think very highly of them. I'd hope that some others would too, and this is a minor attempt to at least get those opinions out there. For the most part, this is a place where I can put my thoughts and maybe other people can help to refine them. I'm not planning in the short term to limit myself to any one particular topic, although I'm sure that some will emerge more frequently than others.

When I first wanted to do this, I titled the blog "Luminary Uprise", a great little line from the Lemon Demon song "Word Disassociation". I found that there is someone out there with a My Space page that uses the same name. After some thought, I decided to nix "Illuminary Uprise" and try to create a new name. I liked the idea of using something from "Word Disassociation", but wanted something more unique. So I tried Wiktionary, thinking that I'd just try some random words. After checking out the "Word of the Day" archives, I happened accross found something that I liked right off the bat: March 15th and March 16th were "eldritch" and "bone of contention", respectively. "Bone of Contention" sounded fair for a blog, and "eldritch" appealed to the D&D geek inside of me. And so here we are.

So who runs the show here? I'm sure you want to know more about me. Well, for now, call me Aerimus. I won't give out my full name, as it would violate Gabe's Theory. There are a few other communities where I use that name, namely in the Bad Astronomy comments, on the PerlMonks site, and at the People's Republic of Venture board. That should give you a little more about me.

So, there you have it. It ain't much, but it's something.