I-95

Spent a few days last week in the I-95 corridor, shuffling between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.  I hadn't been to D.C. for about 20 years, and never traveled there by car.  Some observations of the 30 or so hours spent there:

* Visiting the Smithsonian museums seems like it should be more interesting than it is.  The Air and Space Museum is very cool, but the others are.....museums.  Art and history aren't really that much fun.

* I highly recommend taking the tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  It's only about 30 minutes, and to see and hear the details behind how money is printed is the opposite of the Smithsonian Museums, meaning it's more interesting than it sounds.

* The respectful silence of the hundreds / thousands of tourists at Arlington National Cemetery is deafening.

* The other monuments, in my order of interest:  Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, World War II Memorial.  The Washington Memorial was being repaired, and while it's tall, it isn't all that compelling.  Didn't get to the Jefferson, MLK, or Iwo Jima Memorials.

* The White House is neat to look at but if you could tour it, or be there at the right time to see dignitaries or cars or choppers coming or going, it would be a lot better.  The Capitol and the Supreme Court are the same way.

* The Metro (subway) is a safe, clean, efficient way to get around D.C.  But it isn't necessarily cheap, and you still end up walking a long way to see the tourist attractions.

* The drive on I-95 between Philly and D.C. (through Baltimore) is ridiculous.  Packed with cars and tolls.  So many people in a hurry to get somewhere else, every day.  It's OK if there's no next time for that.

Bad Medicine

On March 16th, 2014 I had a letter to the editor published in the Sunday Des Moines Register.  They edited it, so here it is with the edited part in brackets:

So Iowa Governor Branstad opposes legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes (on the vague grounds of 'unintended consequences'), [while our legislative 'leaders' pat themselves on the back simply because they had a 'conversation' about it this year.]  Both government branches claim the issue needs more study.

The reality is, there's nothing else to study.  Twenty other states already allow medicinal marijuana. Dispensing it by prescription isn't rocket science.  Plus, a majority of Iowans want to legalize medicinal marijuana.

Yet, Iowa is no where near the point at which its narrow-minded political leaders are willing to act to reduce the pain and suffering of some of its citizens.

Iowa doesn't need more study-time to legalize medicinal marijuana.  What it needs is its legislative and executive branch to stop assuming marijuana is an evil drug, and start focusing on the good it can do.

See it here.

A Self-Professed Idiot

My Favorite Martian, WOITH Rep. Steve King of Iowa, is at it again.  Our resident racist / homophobe / bigot had a few (dumb) things to say in support of Arizona's proposed anti-gay, er, I mean religious freedom legislation (which I just wrote about the other day).

I'm happy to say The Colbert Report punished him.  You must watch this video now.

Another Solution In Search Of A Problem

Spent a few days in Arizona in the past week, and what little news I saw was dominated (locally and nationally) by the furor over the state's proposed legislation allowing businesses to refuse service to gays based on religious beliefs.  A few hours before I wrote this, the Republican governor vetoed the bill, after waiting longer than she should have.

While I was in Arizona, I played golf with several small business owners, and I asked what they thought about this bill.  Almost unbelievably, most didn't know to what I was even referring - this goes to show you how much staying up on current political events really matters to a small business-owner's success.  But this also underscored the dumbness of it all.

Here again, we have a solution in search of a problem.  No one is crying out for this legislation, other than your basic right-wing religious zealots, and we consistently see that aligning with them politically is a guaranteed way to lose elections.

It was a terrible idea for the Republicans in the Arizona legislature to advance this issue, they stood to gain nothing while alienating voters.  It was anti-value.

To recap the list of stupid, in no particular order:  Bigoted legislation, the Arizona Republican Party with the possible exception of the governor, certain small-business owners, solutions in search of problems.

Olympic Hiatus

This blog is currently on a break as I represent Guboslavia in curling at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

My Police State

Last week, our little neck of the woods got a bit of national attention for the way law enforcement handled a home raid.  To very briefly summarize, a suburban police force sent in multiple officers in SWAT gear to execute a search warrant at a house in a credit card theft and fraud case.

The homeowner and his do-gooder national blogger sympathizers questioned the heavy-handedness of the raid, including using a battering ram to open the door.  The police chief countered that the homeowner was a registered gun owner, and that they used the information they had to make a decision.

You'd think the libertarian side of me would agree this was too much police force.  You'd think wrong.  Let's recap the what happened and the outcome:

* The homeowner admitted he had a 9mm gun that he drew but then re-holstered when he heard it was the police.  And he was in the bathroom when he did this.  Carries his gun everywhere, I guess.

* This suburban home had surveillance cameras outside and inside the house - what suburban Iowa home does that?  Isn't that a bit of a tell that the homeowner has something to hide?  The police chief noted that they disabled or covered up the cameras as standard procedure, so others could not monitor approaching officers.

* There were three other unrelated people in the house, along with the homeowner's mother, who's probably really the actual homeowner.  Two of them were arrested on unrelated warrants, and time will tell if they were involved with or know who was involved in the credit card theft and fraud.

So to recap, not only was there potential criminal activity in the house, and at least one loaded weapon, there were also actual criminals.  But somehow, the story is all about the manner in which the police chose to protect themselves.

We don't have a police state in Iowa (or the U.S.), and bloggers or media-types who use examples like this to say otherwise should give it a rest.

The Late Shows

Four years ago, I wrote about my disdain over NBC's handling of Conan O'Brien's short stint as the host of The Tonight Show.  Conan was robbed, and he eventually ended up on TBS at 10pm central time, where I dutifully DVR his shows.

Now four years later, Leno is leaving again, this time 'agreeing' to leave so that NBC can move in a younger guy, Jimmy Fallon. Where have we seen this before?

I like Fallon and what he's done on the Late Night show, as I did with Conan.  And as with Conan, I'll probably start watching the Tonight Show again, (I gave it up in disgust after Leno came back), although in the 10:30pm half-hour I prefer watching The Colbert Report.  I haven't watched much of The Late Show with David Letterman over the past few years - used to watch it religiously, but we've both gotten too old for his show.

Good-bye again, Jay.  You should have stayed away.