A reporter from KTVN Channel 2, Jen Jackson, was at Rancho San Rafael Park last night doing a Man on On the Street bit about the James Biela murder trial. If you're from Reno, you probably know a lot about it. If not, there was a rapist-turned murderer in Northwest Reno next to the campus of the University of Nevada. It has all the makings of some horror movie but for the fact that it's reality.
I can't wait for the guilty verdict. If he's guilty, of course- his rape/murder victim's missing panties were found in his possession months later.
Anyway, my lovely lady and myself get in on the news during the MOS. I drop the best quote at :45 and my wife gets in on the verbiage at 1:20.
This touches home for a lot of people in Reno. We lived in the same neighborhood he was terrorizing and even met one of the rape victims by chance a while back. She just got engaged an hour or two before it happened.
I don't want the gas chamber for this guy: I want him hung upside down by his feet from the Reno arch on Virginia Street along with a pile of rocks and all his victims and victims' families.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Squeezing a penny out of a barrel
Since when did we stop believing Federal Government tax hikes go to their intended funds? Did we ever believe it?
The Federal Government facing a deficit again this month doesn’t surprise anyone. President Obama introducing legislation to raise taxes doesn’t raise eyebrows, either. The tax hike is for a special fund reserved for the clean-up of oil spills. The timing is obvious. That doesn’t surprise anyone either.
It’s only $.01 per barrel, but it would average $50 million for the next 10 years.
From Reuters:
“For the first seven months of fiscal 2010, which ends September 30, the cumulative budget deficit totals $799.68 billion, down slightly from $802.3 billion in the comparable period of fiscal 2009.”
And then from the UK’s Times:
“Under a $118 million spending plan outlined in the package, people affected by the spill — such as fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because of the contamination — will be granted financial assistance, and federal agencies will get additional funds to monitor the slick and assess its impact.”
With such a cash strapped government, do we really think the government will keep the “Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund” sacred?
I’m running a personal deficit this month. We had our first child this month. Babies are expensive. Because of that, do you think I’m going out to drink at an expensive bar with coworkers after work? No. I’m raiding those funds for the important things. That blow fund, the “grease that makes everything run smoothly,” has been destroyed this month. I can do that. I also reigned in our spending. We're selling a vehicle- a 2004 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, low miles. This happens when money is tight.
So, when will the Fed rein in their spending?
I don’t have an economics degree, but I do find it peculiar that these headlines came up on the same day. It would seem more pertinent to see this as Obama’s staff searching every nook and cranny and tax loophole possible and to plug them all up. It’s an $82.69 billion deficit for April. Ouch.
Wish I could just charge more from my employer. I’d squeeze them, too, but the Feds need it more. Someone has to pay for my healthcare.
The Federal Government facing a deficit again this month doesn’t surprise anyone. President Obama introducing legislation to raise taxes doesn’t raise eyebrows, either. The tax hike is for a special fund reserved for the clean-up of oil spills. The timing is obvious. That doesn’t surprise anyone either.
It’s only $.01 per barrel, but it would average $50 million for the next 10 years.
From Reuters:
“For the first seven months of fiscal 2010, which ends September 30, the cumulative budget deficit totals $799.68 billion, down slightly from $802.3 billion in the comparable period of fiscal 2009.”
And then from the UK’s Times:
“Under a $118 million spending plan outlined in the package, people affected by the spill — such as fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because of the contamination — will be granted financial assistance, and federal agencies will get additional funds to monitor the slick and assess its impact.”
With such a cash strapped government, do we really think the government will keep the “Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund” sacred?
I’m running a personal deficit this month. We had our first child this month. Babies are expensive. Because of that, do you think I’m going out to drink at an expensive bar with coworkers after work? No. I’m raiding those funds for the important things. That blow fund, the “grease that makes everything run smoothly,” has been destroyed this month. I can do that. I also reigned in our spending. We're selling a vehicle- a 2004 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, low miles. This happens when money is tight.
So, when will the Fed rein in their spending?
I don’t have an economics degree, but I do find it peculiar that these headlines came up on the same day. It would seem more pertinent to see this as Obama’s staff searching every nook and cranny and tax loophole possible and to plug them all up. It’s an $82.69 billion deficit for April. Ouch.
Wish I could just charge more from my employer. I’d squeeze them, too, but the Feds need it more. Someone has to pay for my healthcare.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
I cometh with my words
A mistake, sometimes, can be seen miles away. You still head that direction because you're too wishful to allow the reality of what you're seeing ahead to stop and turn around. Once you get to that mistake, you've built up your psyche around this mistake and you refuse to see that Grand Canyon-size hole in front of you and you leap.
That impact on the ground is the first sensation of regret when the mistakes are big ones. Like changing jobs, for instance.
Since I quit my reporter job seven years ago, I've never thought it a good idea. Not once have I looked back and thought that it was a smart career and personal move for myself.
Deep in the back of my mind before I quit, I knew it to be a mistake, but was too wishful. Some may call it wishy-washy.
That is what you call regret because it was a poor decision that resulted in poor results. I walked away from a potential dream- albeit a few years down the road- of writing magazine-esque features full time on mostly outdoor pursuits, to pursue some lame business idea in a place I hate. That's another story.
Fast forward to today and I can say that I've learned a lot from this mistake. I've also learned that a career move like this one- I quit and started a doomed family business 700 miles away- will beget several more poor moves. I don't necessarily regret any of those, because they wouldn't have happened without this one. Beside, leaving one shit job for another shit job doesn't count.
It does make life hard. Harder than it could be. Much harder.
So after a long series of various jobs, one at least was part time media work, blogging now seems like the best way to restart my writing in a Web 2.0 world. Be it grad school or commercial writing or as a reporter or using the discipline to write a novel, blogging should be good for me. If anything, it could be a healthy form of expression. Beats barbacking or sales with thievish unscrupulous bosses.
I have a lot of shit to sling and I don't mind cussing.
I've had dreams fulfilled and I've had dreams die and I want to revive the some of the dead ones. Because when I quit that Truckee, Calif., newspaper seven years ago, I quit most of those dreams.
Soon thereafter, I realized it and it crushed me. My dreams are all I ever wanted to work for.
Maybe in some small way, this will help to right that ship.
That impact on the ground is the first sensation of regret when the mistakes are big ones. Like changing jobs, for instance.
Since I quit my reporter job seven years ago, I've never thought it a good idea. Not once have I looked back and thought that it was a smart career and personal move for myself.
Deep in the back of my mind before I quit, I knew it to be a mistake, but was too wishful. Some may call it wishy-washy.
That is what you call regret because it was a poor decision that resulted in poor results. I walked away from a potential dream- albeit a few years down the road- of writing magazine-esque features full time on mostly outdoor pursuits, to pursue some lame business idea in a place I hate. That's another story.
Fast forward to today and I can say that I've learned a lot from this mistake. I've also learned that a career move like this one- I quit and started a doomed family business 700 miles away- will beget several more poor moves. I don't necessarily regret any of those, because they wouldn't have happened without this one. Beside, leaving one shit job for another shit job doesn't count.
It does make life hard. Harder than it could be. Much harder.
So after a long series of various jobs, one at least was part time media work, blogging now seems like the best way to restart my writing in a Web 2.0 world. Be it grad school or commercial writing or as a reporter or using the discipline to write a novel, blogging should be good for me. If anything, it could be a healthy form of expression. Beats barbacking or sales with thievish unscrupulous bosses.
I have a lot of shit to sling and I don't mind cussing.
I've had dreams fulfilled and I've had dreams die and I want to revive the some of the dead ones. Because when I quit that Truckee, Calif., newspaper seven years ago, I quit most of those dreams.
Soon thereafter, I realized it and it crushed me. My dreams are all I ever wanted to work for.
Maybe in some small way, this will help to right that ship.
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