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.

Best Song Lyrics (Part XIV)

Often times when sitting in the quiet of my office, I turn to Pandora to help fill the silence with mello music.  I only have two current 'channels' set up:  Jimmy Buffett Radio, and Jackson Browne Radio.

Why Jackson Browne?  Because it gives me not only good music, but good lyrics.  Plus, on that channel I'll also get a lot of Eagles, a lot of Jim Croce, a lot of Dave Matthews Band, each of whom has already been mentioned in my Best Lyrics anthology.  (Little known fact:  Jackson Browne co-wrote Take It Easy, popularized by the Eagles.)

You probably need to be over 30 (40?) to appreciate Jackson Browne and what he's done for music.  The last half of his career he started to get more politically active, and it comes through in those lyrics.  Either way, he's just a fantastic performer and songwriter.

There are so many songs I could go with as an example - so I'll go with more than one.  First, check out the final verse of The Pretender:

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But I have to add this, from Rosie, with its beautiful, double-entendre chorus:

She was standing at the load-in

When the trucks rolled up

She was sniffing all around

Like a half grown female pup

She wasn't hard to talk to

Looked like she had nowhere to go

So I gave her my pass

So she could get in and see the show

Well I sat her down right next to me

And I got her a beer

While I mixed that sound on stage

So the band could hear

The more I watched her watch them play

The less I could think of to say

And when they walked off stage

The drummer swept that girl away

But Rosie you're all right - you wear my ring

When you hold me tight - Rosie that's my thing

When you turn out the light - I've got to hand it to me

Looks like it's me and you again tonight Rosie

Rocky Mountain High

My legions of followers must be going crazy wondering when I would write about Colorado's now-three-week-old law allowing sales of (and therefore possession and use of) recreational pot.

It's only one of the greatest legal developments of the past.....well.....how long ago did we repeal prohibition?

This is just the latest watershed moment in the movement toward granting marijuana the same treatment as alcohol in the U.S.  It will take more time, of course, there's still a long way to go.  Even in Colorado, there are still restrictions on quantity that can be purchased, and it can't be smoked in public.  (Really?)

But next year, the state of Washington will have the same law.  Then probably Oregon, then another state, then another, etc.  There's no putting this Genie back in the bottle, because Americans are going to realize what the rest of we more enlightened Americans have know for years:  Using regulated pot is no more dangerous - in fact, it's less dangerous - than alcohol.  Plus, states can collect taxes on it, and spending less on prisons because they can stop treating sellers and buyers like criminals.

Just consider the last few weeks since the law has been in place.  I don't live in Colorado, but I don't hear any national outcry about how this law is the road to hell.  We're going to collectively accept that it's OK, after all these years.  Maybe it's an apples to oranges comparison, but it seems a lot like the slow but inexorable march toward acceptance of same-sex marriage.

Cash Only

Iowa is a state where the modern does battle with the anachronistic on a daily basis.  There is no better example of this than the Iowa State Fair, where you see both designer clothes and bib overalls.  Where you see both major music acts and fiddlers on stage.  Where you see both presidential candidates and carnies.

But there is apparently one thing Iowans will not allow to be modernized, namely how they pay for their fair food.  Last week the state fair caused a furor by saying they were implementing a pay-by-ticket policy on food, where fair-goers would first have to purchase tickets for $.50, and then use them for their food purchases.

This is probably a thinly-veiled attempt by the fair to keep concession stands honest when reporting their food sales, from which the fair gets a cut.  It seemed benign enough though, right?  I mean, we've all been places where we exchange tickets rather than cash for food or beverages.  Plus, it would be safer for all those making night deposits of cash.

Instead, the blue-collar resistors of change that apparently are at the core of the Iowa State Fair rose up, and using social media (who knew?), they slayed the ticket dragon.  My goodness, stand in one line to get tickets before standing in another to get their fried-on-a-stick food?  Outrageous!

It didn't hurt that governor-for-life Terry Branstad weighed in that the fair should reconsider.  Like he ever goes to the fair and buys fair food with cash.  It also came out that the guv is on the state fair board, but never goes to the meetings.  Maybe he should at least start reading the meeting minutes.

So the fair is going back to the old (read: current) cash-for-food method.  The question is in 10 years, when we'll all be paying for things by debiting from our cell phones instead of cash or tickets, will the agents of non-change rise up again in the defense of anachronism?