January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
November 18, 2008
Sam and I visited Harrisonburg, Virginia the first week in November and stayed at the Massanutten 4 Seasons Resort. We have become regulars at the Resort since Ali started college at James Madison University in 2006. Apparently it is very easy to get good deals on condos at Massanutten through RCI, we got a two bedroom complete with sauna for about $250, for the week. I played golf at one of Massanutten's two 18 hole golf courses, beautifully maintained, and we visited some Shenandoah Wineries. The wineries are just getting started save for Shenandoah Winery which has been going for about 10 years. We brought back a case of wine and all bottles have been good, however, they were not cheap.
The main purpose of the trip was to see Ali in another lead role in a JMU main stage production. This time "The Rover" an old English comedy written by a woman Aphra Behn and set in Naples in 1655. It is a battle of the sexes comedy and Ali played one of the two sisters at the center of the battle. As usual Ali was brilliant and beautiful even though the other sister, played by her friend Lauren Ramsey, had most of the funny lines. The costumes we elaborate and required several changes for the female leads. Ali's presence on stage continues to amaze me. She seems at home no matter the role, like she belongs right there at that time and place. She never misses a line, no wonder the keep casting her. I wonder where it will all lead? She longs for singing roles in musicals, but there is no question she is a natural born actor.
Sam and I visited Harrisonburg, Virginia the first week in November and stayed at the Massanutten 4 Seasons Resort. We have become regulars at the Resort since Ali started college at James Madison University in 2006. Apparently it is very easy to get good deals on condos at Massanutten through RCI, we got a two bedroom complete with sauna for about $250, for the week. I played golf at one of Massanutten's two 18 hole golf courses, beautifully maintained, and we visited some Shenandoah Wineries. The wineries are just getting started save for Shenandoah Winery which has been going for about 10 years. We brought back a case of wine and all bottles have been good, however, they were not cheap.
The main purpose of the trip was to see Ali in another lead role in a JMU main stage production. This time "The Rover" an old English comedy written by a woman Aphra Behn and set in Naples in 1655. It is a battle of the sexes comedy and Ali played one of the two sisters at the center of the battle. As usual Ali was brilliant and beautiful even though the other sister, played by her friend Lauren Ramsey, had most of the funny lines. The costumes we elaborate and required several changes for the female leads. Ali's presence on stage continues to amaze me. She seems at home no matter the role, like she belongs right there at that time and place. She never misses a line, no wonder the keep casting her. I wonder where it will all lead? She longs for singing roles in musicals, but there is no question she is a natural born actor.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
October 30, 2008
Why I will vote for Obama.
Change is good. The Republicans have held sway in Washington since 1980. Clinton was president for 8 years but for six of those years the Republicans controlled Congress. It is time for a different view of government and its place in America. Ronald Reagan said that government is not the solution, it is the problem. This has been the mantra for nearly thirty years, even though the government has grown in size and power. But government power under Republicans has not always been used for the good of the all of the people. Senator Obama now says that the government can be our friend. That it can be used to better our lives, all of our lives. He says that the upper class in this country has a disproportion of the wealth and that trickle down economics has not worked. I think he is right. At the very least I think it is time to try another way of governing. The country is truly not better off now than it was four or even eight years ago, and while all of the problems cannot be blamed on Republicans it is clear that the country now needs to go in another direction with a new philosophy.
Why I will vote for Obama.
Change is good. The Republicans have held sway in Washington since 1980. Clinton was president for 8 years but for six of those years the Republicans controlled Congress. It is time for a different view of government and its place in America. Ronald Reagan said that government is not the solution, it is the problem. This has been the mantra for nearly thirty years, even though the government has grown in size and power. But government power under Republicans has not always been used for the good of the all of the people. Senator Obama now says that the government can be our friend. That it can be used to better our lives, all of our lives. He says that the upper class in this country has a disproportion of the wealth and that trickle down economics has not worked. I think he is right. At the very least I think it is time to try another way of governing. The country is truly not better off now than it was four or even eight years ago, and while all of the problems cannot be blamed on Republicans it is clear that the country now needs to go in another direction with a new philosophy.
Monday, October 20, 2008
October 20, 2008
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people.
Ronald Reagan January 20, 1981.
If this is not exactly what is happening now in Washington I must be crazy. The same people who caused the housing bubble and the following financial crisis are now going to bail us out of the mess. Even the Washington Post is now admitting that Congress, with the complicity of the Clinton adminstration, encouraged lenders to make unwise loans in furtherance of what they call the worthy cause of home ownership. The bubble burst and the whole house of cards came tumbling down. My fear is that in our haste to dig out of the rubble of this disaster our leaders will take us down the road to socialism. As Winston Churchill once said: " The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socalism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Saturday, August 9, 2008
August 9 2008
I have read that Presidential Candidate Obama has proposed a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies as part of his energy plan. Two things strike me about this proposal: (1) it was tried in the 1970s by Jimmy Carter and the then democrats in Congress and it did nothing to alleviate the energy crisis of that time; and (2) if we tax excess profits of corporations, should we not provide some form of relief to corporations when they have excess losses, I am thinking here of the American automobile companies. It occurs to me that the best thing the Federal government can do for the American economy is to stay as far away from it as possible. The price of oil has begun to come down, and thanks to our Washington gridlock (and I am not talking about the traffic), the Federal government has had absolutely nothing to do with the decline.
I have read that Presidential Candidate Obama has proposed a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies as part of his energy plan. Two things strike me about this proposal: (1) it was tried in the 1970s by Jimmy Carter and the then democrats in Congress and it did nothing to alleviate the energy crisis of that time; and (2) if we tax excess profits of corporations, should we not provide some form of relief to corporations when they have excess losses, I am thinking here of the American automobile companies. It occurs to me that the best thing the Federal government can do for the American economy is to stay as far away from it as possible. The price of oil has begun to come down, and thanks to our Washington gridlock (and I am not talking about the traffic), the Federal government has had absolutely nothing to do with the decline.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
I went to see Sex in the City (the movie) last night with my wife and 19 year old daughter. I commented that it was the quintessential chick flick, however, upon reflection I must also admit that the movie’s message was one that needed to be stated for the sake of all women. I was never a fan of the TV series. I thought the four main characters were vacuous and totally lacking in any redeeming qualities. Their main purpose in life, it seemed to me, was the pursuit of males and the sexual conquest of same. Then they would get together, sip cosmopolitans, and talk about their conquests or failures and commiserate with one another on the inequities of life in general.
Sex in the City (the move) had a more positive message for women. While it is true that each of the gals suffered misfortune in their amorous affairs, in the end they all came to the realization that one size does not fit all, weather it be in shoes or the male anatomy. The main character, Carrie Bradshaw, had a 10 year relationship with a man, Big (aka John Preston), who she came to realize was the love of her life. They were together and happy until she fell into the common pitfall of a large number of upper middle class to wealthy couples. It is what I call the status trap or what used to be known as “Keeping up with the Joneses”. The wedding became the center piece of her life rather than her relationship with Big. He, being a man, felt he was playing second fiddle, and this caused him ask himself, “What am I getting myself into”. Everything collapsed sending him into exile and her into depression. It took a year, and a few clever plot twists, for her to come to the realization that Big was in fact the love of her life and being his wife was far more important that being in Vogue magazine. So they did what they should have done in the first place. They got married at city hall with no one in attendance and then they went out and celebrated with friends and whoever.
The other three women making up the ensemble also came to life altering realizations. Samantha, the nymphomaniac, realized that that indeed was her lot in life, so she left a handsome man who loved her and a dream house in
The positive message of the movie, that everybody is different and no one answer is right for everybody, was for me, a refreshing change from the negative vibes of the TV series. I also liked the fact that Carrie waited until she and Big were in their forties to get married. Personally, as the father of two daughters this appealed to me, as did the idea of getting married at City Hall, a small church would have done, and then celebrating. All in all things turned out well for the girls, but I don’t know if sitting through almost three hours, of chick flickery was worth the effort for me.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
There is an interesting article in the Washington Post this morning by Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University. Williams cites The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 as the, or one of the causes of the current "Sub-Prime Crisis". The Act encouraged banks and savings institutions to make the so called "no doc" and "Liar" loans that are now so frequently in default. His point being that most problems in America are caused by Government actions, which are often well intentioned. The Government adopted, in the 70s, a policy that every American should own his or her own home. In theory this is a wonderful idea, but in actuality it can't happen without Government subsidizing home purchases. Instead of providing the subsidy the Government simply mandated the dream and hoped that it would become a reality. It worked for a while, but markets and economies do not exist in a vacuum. Things change! And so it was with the housing market. The moral of the story, the Government should stay as far away as possible from mandating things it can't deliver on, like lowering gasoline prices.
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