August 06, 2009
Healthcare: Are Republicans becoming irrelevant?
Posted by Joe Litton
This evening we attended what was supposed to be a healthcare townhall meeting in Tampa. It was supposed to be an opportunity to learn about H.R. 3200, "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009". Florida State House Representative Betty Reed attempted to host a forum in which people could listen to US House Rep Kathy Castor describe the bill for 10 minutes, have a discussion from a panel, and then open it up to discussion. Here's a copy of the agenda that was handed out.
What happened was that the room was, I am sure, filled beyond fire marshal limits (at least 200 in the meeting room - glad I arrived an hour early). A crowd estimated at over 1,000 was outside. As Rep Castor tried to speak, the mob would yell and chant, refusing to allow anything close to civil discourse. After I witnessed a couple of shoving matches, heard banging on the doors, banging on the windows (I was standing in an aisle by a window), something THROWN from outside at the window where I was standing ...it became apparent that this was not a safe place to be.
Initially I saw one uniformed police officer present. Another officer arrived, but there was no way two officers could contain this disgusting mob. The sad thing is that I know SOME people there (like us) wanted to hopefully learn something. I was having a quite cordial discussion with one person who was conservative (I'm a liberal), and she had written down some questions that she had hoped to ask. She truly had hoped to attend a townhall meeting where neighbors can discuss an issue and hopefully treat each other with respect.
As the mob became increasingly loud - inside the room and outside - and after witnessing a couple of shoving matches that I thought were going to escalate into all-out brawl, we decided that there was no point in sticking around, and we left.
As we made our way past the crowd outside (hundreds of people from each side of the issue), I was happy to see more police arriving. When we met up with friends later we were told that police in riot gear arrived, and the meeting was dispersed.
Kathy Castor IS planning to continue trying to reach out to her constituents, quite possibly next week, but this time plans to do so via phone; people could call in and hear her speak and then pose questions via phone in an orderly manner. That will allow everyone to hear, it will be safe, and hopefully those who wish to use their "inside voice" will be able to ask questions.
The Republican Party has no solution to offer for healthcare reform, so all they can do is try to prevent discussion. So far, I've not heard anyone from the Republican Party denouncing the unruly, rude, and dangerous behavior of these mobs. Why will they not stand up and denounce this attempt to stifle the democratic process and open discussion?
Until the Republican Party offers solutions - not just obstructions - they will continue to sink deeper and deeper into irrelevance.
Posted by Joe Litton | August 6, 2009 in Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)
July 24, 2009
It Could Happen to You!!!
Posted by Aaron Butts
Greetings all! For those of you who may have been wondering why I was out on Thursday, let me enlighten you.
Around 9:30 PM, I was headed northbound on I-75, approximately one mile from the Fletcher Avenue exit, when I began to experience a thumping sound and a very rough ride. I expressed myself with creative words, up until about one half mile from the exit.
The thumping got worse, then there was a loud popping sound, a distinct sound of metal to asphalt, and a very unhappy me. I proceeded to pull over into the right lane and jog my way over to the shoulder to assess what caused my terrible noise when what to my wondering eyes should appear?!? The tread of my driver side tire taking the opposite course as me.
Under a street lamp I prepared to install my spare tire, only to have the street lamp go out and find out that my tire was effectively shot, at which point I called FHP.
They arrived in no time flat, five to ten minutes, aided me in getting a spare which they provided onto my car, and escorted me off the road to safety. The only problem I had was that I didn't get his name, because I fully intended on calling FHP once more to compliment his fine and courteous service. For the problems you hear about law enforcement, there are still some who hold up their "protect and serve" motto.
Once the sun rose in Lutz the next day, I drove to Kauffman tire, found out my tire was special order (but covered by Dunlop). No cost to me. Yay! Friday morning I picked up my tire, mounted on my rim, since luckily it was minimally damaged, only several scratches, and put it on.
In the process I found out that my rain guard flap behind the driver tire was gone, along with a trim panel. The ABS Wheel Speed Sensor had been ripped out of the body of the car, and the control arm was warped. Since these are all minor but aggravating, I'll start to work straightening it all out on Sunday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
PS - IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU, my best advice is DO NOT APPLY YOUR BRAKES. Coast to a stop. Since metal has much more resistance the rubber, you run the risk of spinning the car, or worse, flipping it over. I'm lucky I knew.
Posted by Aaron Butts | July 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 27, 2009
Are we related? ..brief blurb about my family genealogy...
Posted by Joe Litton
One of my brothers has done a fair bit of research into the family tree. While we can trace our roots back to Germany, Ireland, England, and possibly France, one branch (the Cram family - also spelled Cramm, Kram, von Cram, etc) can be traced back to around 655 AD in Germany.
It turns out that if your family name is one of the below, we might be related. If you have money, I'd love to talk.
And for those who don't know, my original family name was "Little"; my wife's name was "Burton". When we were married, we combined our names: LITtle + burTON = LITTON. I periodically get contacted from other Littons around the world wondering if we're related. We might be related, but not due to the Litton name :)
Posted by Joe Litton | June 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
June 23, 2009
Sad Day for Democracy in Hillsborough County
Posted by Aaron Butts
While many of us are still reeling from the epic mishandling of the past election by Buddy Johnson here in the Tampa Bay area, we have suffered another critical blow. Our recently elected Supervisor of Elections, Mrs. Phyllis Busansky, has passed away while at a conference in St. Augustine, FL. See story HERE.
First, I'd like to offer our collective condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues, and wish that all goes smoothly for you while you prepare for the future. She will be missed by many as a friend and certainly as a fierce politician who had a plan to turn around the poorly handled Office of the Supervisor of Elections.
So what comes now you ask? Admittedly, not an hour ago, I wasn't even quite sure of the answer to that question, but thanks to Joe, I am now.
Pam Iorio (D) was the Supervisor of Elections until she won the mayoral race, leaving the SoE position vacant. In this case, it falls to the Governor of Florida (then Jeb Bush (R)) to appoint a replacement. That replacement was Buddy Johnson (R).
Over Buddy Johnson's tenure as SoE, numerous reports were filed outlining the mishandling of the office, including the loss of a considerable sum of money, and federal assistance was requested to cover the deficit. In addition, there were a number of business ventures and real estate dealings that seemed to be less than honest and properly done. See story HERE.
So now, this appointment falls to our current Governor, Charlie Crist (R). I applauded Crist's handling of the Election in the State of Florida, by extending Early Vote hours due to overwhelming response, even though some Conservative camps urged him not to do so. It was an example of putting partisan politics aside and being a good Governor.
However, Crist, despite his good deeds, is still heavily influenced by the GOP, and may be more inclined to appoint another Republican to this position, despite the majority of Hillsborough county favoring Democrats in this past election.
The question remains, with the GOP's tarnished brand of politics, would he dare do such a thing? And what would the benefit be to the GOP in Florida and beyond? Would he risk backlash from the Florida and Hillsborough Democrats? I guess only time will tell.
Posted by Aaron Butts | June 23, 2009 in Current Affairs, Florida, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 08, 2009
Consumer Commodities and the Chinese Economy
Posted by Aaron Butts
It's rather unfair to blame the Chinese for all the problem that the U.S. is having with products imported from overseas manufacturers. While it seems an egregious error in judgment to allow certain, decidedly unsafe products, we cannot solely blame this on the Chinese. Certainly, oversight may be there, but is it not also the job of the American government to verify and test the claims made by ANYONE about the safety and fitness for use of a particular product?
We as a country demand more and more cheap products and demand them in bulk to further mitigate cost. Accelerated production just begs poorer and poorer quality. Cost-cutting, lack of quality control, and inflated assurances of the safety of these products underlie the major problems we're having with these problems.
A solution to this problem? Let's get off the "cheap-as-we-can-possibly-get-it" express at the next stop. More expensive products? Sorry, that's an unfortunate by-product in the short term, but American workers will get higher wages, better care, The American dollar will rise in value, the standard of living will increase, tax revenues increase, and our economy slowly eases out of this slump.
Just food for thought.
Posted by Aaron Butts | June 8, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
June 07, 2009
Starting 2nd week of Vegan eating...
Posted by Joe Litton
Years ago, Shirley & I were vegetarian. I've been vegan a time or two, tho' neither of us remembers if I was vegan when we met (I don't think so, but not sure). For those who may not know, the difference is that some vegetarians might consume milk products ('lacto'), and some might consume egg products ('ovo'). Vegetarians who consume milk and egg products are lacto-ovo vegetarians, and that' what Shirley and I were during the first several years that we were together. There were a couple of times when I was a vegan; vegans don't consume any animal products.
Although we've not had red meat (beef, pork, etc) in over 30 years, for the majority of the past 20+ years we've eaten birds and fish, along with fruits, grains, veggies, etc. Recently we'd been considering getting healthier in our eating again.
Well, our buddy John (http://jonvon.net/) turned us on to The China Study (book, website), and then to The Thrive Diet (book, website). So motivated by those books, and with a lot of inspiration from VegWeb (bunches of great recipes), we've completed a week as vegans, and are starting on week 2.
My main impressions so far is that we are eating WELL, we are eating healthy, and I'm not feeling hungry, nor am I craving anything. One of my goals is (with this improvement in diet, coupled with increased exercise) to get down to a bodyfat percentage of 15% (currently just under 25%), and to see some great numbers re cholesterol, triglycerides, etc when I have my next physical checkup in mid/late summer. We'll see how the upcoming weeks go :)
Posted by Joe Litton | June 7, 2009 in Health | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 19, 2009
Updating podcasts to iPod using Ubuntu
Posted by Joe Litton
I've been running various versions of Ubuntu on my home machines (a desktop, a laptop, and a netbook) for some time now. But in the past, I'd had a devil of a time managing my iPod from Ubuntu. OK, it wasn't horrible, but I had to use a couple of applications: Rhythmbox, which seems to always be included with the default install of Ubuntu; and Amarok, which has to be added separately, but which I used to really like.
Well, Amarok was recently upgraded, and I truly hate the new interface. Especially on the netbook - which has become my main machine:) - the new Amarok interface with its clunky graphics and (to me) harder-to-use interface was just no longer an option. So I decided to see if the latest versions of Ubuntu and Rhythmbox could work alone.
Amarok had never seemed to be able to see the iPod on its own. I'd connect the iPod, Rhythmbox would open, then I could shut Rhythmbox and use Amarok from that point on.
Well a week or so ago, I upgraded the netbook to Ubuntu 9.04 (aka, the Jaunty Jackalope :) ...What I actually installed was an Ubuntu 9.04 remix from Dell. I'll do a separate post about the problems I had with the (non-Dell) 9.04 Ubuntu Netbook Remix; that's a separate story.
Hoping to be able to just use Rhythmbox, I did a very little bit of fumbling and happily discovered that it.just.works! So...I've posted a Flickr stream (7 screen shots) showing the very easy steps. Trust me, this used to be harder...honest!
In case you don't want or need to look at screen shots, here's the instructions:
Copy the desired podcast link to your clipboard. Then...
- Select Applications > Sound & Video > Rhythmbox Music Player
- Select Podcasts. Any feeds that you already have will display in the right-hand pane. Rightclick in the Feed pane and select New Podcast Feed.
- Paste in the link to your new podcast, and click Add.
- Right-click on the podcast name and select Update Podcast Feed. This will populate a summary line for each podcast episode, but this does not yet download the actual podcast.
- Right-click on the desired episode and select Download Episode. Now the actual sound file will download.
- Grab your iPod and USB cable. Plug the USB cable into the iPod and turn on the iPod. Once the iPod comes on, plug the other end of the cable into an open port on your computer. Rhythmbox will recognize the device and you'll see the name of your iPod appear in the Devices category. Click on the Podcasts category and drag the desired podcast episode(s) onto the name of your iPod.
- Once your iPod is updated, locate the iPod icon on your desktop. Right-click on the icon and select Eject Volume. Once your iPod screen displays its normal menu, you can disconnect the USB cable from the computer and from the iPod.
Sweet :)
Posted by Joe Litton | May 19, 2009 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 26, 2009
Vacation in Floriday Keys
Posted by Joe Litton
Shirley and I took this past week as vacation, and popped down to the beautiful Florida Keys. Pics are posted on Flickr. We decided that Key West was not really for us, but we were only there for a quick day trip. Most of the time we spent in the Marathon area, which is halfway between Key Largo and Key West. It was exactly a 6.5 hour drive from home, including a couple of stops. We stayed at Hawks Cay on a deal we booked through TravelZoo (thank you Howard & Michelle for telling us about that site!). This meant that we paid about half of the posted "rack rate".
The good part was almost everything :) ...perfect weather, great scenery, wonderful food, plenty to do and learn in the area.
The bad part was that the confirmation we were emailed from Hawks Cay stated that we had "Ocean View". They lied. None of the townhouses have an ocean view (unless one or two have a partial view). And they couldn't even find our reservation! I showed them the email (via the BlackBerry), showing that it was from them, booked weeks ago. First they tried to put us in a unit with a view of a narrow canal with other buildings on the other side. We complained and asked for what we were promised. They tried to move us a few doors down (same view) and after being a bit more assertive, they put us in a unit with a nice water view...just not the "ocean view" that the confirmation had listed. Oh well ...Caveat emptor. I'll post a fuller review on Travel Advisor at some point.
Hawks Cay IS a beautiful resort. But it is my feeling that they exaggerate (at best) some of their description. But after the initial disappointment and anger, we calmed ourselves down and did have a truly wonderful time :)
Posted by Joe Litton | April 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 05, 2009
Still off caffeine - mostly :)
Posted by Joe Litton
During the past month or so, I've consumed a total of about 2 full cups of caffeinated coffee. I had originally stopped drinking real coffee because I thought perhaps I was having PVCs brought on by too much caffeine (even though I typically had only 2 cups of coffee a day, and never more than 3). Well, increasing my dosage of CoQ10 seems to have done the trick. Normally I take 200mg of CoQ10 each day, and I upped that to 400mg for a couple of weeks. And there's been no more of the "fluttery" kind of sensation that I'd had. I've also had a cup (or partial cup) of real coffee a couple of times when I was dragging in the afternoon, with no ill effects.
Since I've found a very nice decaf coffee - Seattle's Best Organic 'Twilight' Swiss water process whole bean - I've decided to stick with this decaf for most of my coffee drinking. I like the taste, but usually do not really 'need' the caffeine. And once in a while, if I do feel that I need to bathe my heart in a little adrenaline, then I'll grab a cup of REAL coffee :)
Posted by Joe Litton | April 5, 2009 in Health | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 07, 2009
Say it ain't so! A decaffeinated Joe?
Posted by Joe Litton
I've been off of coffee for a week now - except for that experimental cup Wednesday morning. More on that in a bit.
For as long as I can remember, I've loved the smell of coffee. Given that I was toilet-trained by the age of 18 months, and quite clearly remember my mom changing my diaper, that means that for at least half a century (I'm 52) the aroma of the first dark brew of morning has excited my senses.
It was 1970 (9th grade) when I had my first cup of coffee. I was watching a football game and was freezing, so bought the only hot beverage they had - coffee. It was terrible stuff.
The first year of college somehow passed with coffee still not on my list of consumed beverages; all of that changed by the second year. Fast-forward to post-college, then marriage, then an infant son and a tanking economy, and I went back to school to become a geek. For 2 years I worked full time and went to school more than full time, and consumed (literally) 20 cups of coffee a day (one per hour of wakefulness) plus periodic caffeine pills plus diet coke. It was 4 hours of sleep a night for 6 nights a week, and an all-nighter once a week. For 2 years. That was 20+ years ago and I can still lay down anywhere and enjoy a 10-minute nap :)
Once those 2 years were done, and for the next 20 some-odd years, I would enjoy 2 to 3 cups of coffee most days. Typically on vacations or if sick, I'd skip coffee. Once espresso had been discovered by the Littons, our coffee love affair blossomed. We purchased a Pasquini Livia semi-commercial espresso machine, a Rancillio Rocky burr grinder, and for the past 7 years have bought green (unroasted) coffee beans and roasted much of our consumed coffee to our own preferences.
Ah, bliss in a steaming cup of black elixer!
A week ago I noticed a bit of a 'fluttery' feel in the heart area. Not constant, but relatively frequent throughout the day (10 times?). Exercise was not affected... strenuous workouts are no problem at all. I can work up a healthy sweat and keep going on the treadmill or other workout for an hour and the body feels great. It was only when stationary that I'd notice it. Could it be that decades of bathing my heart in twice/thrice-daily adrenaline baths was having an effect? Inconceivable!
So I decided to experiment. I had no coffee last Saturday, none Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. By Wednesday, there was no more of that fluttery thing, so I tried a cup of coffee to see what would happen. Our bodies are truly wonderful laboratories ...within reason, of course. Well, before the morning was done, there was that flutter. So I've not had any coffee since that Wednesday cup, and the flutter has diminished more each day.
I can't say that coffee is definitely the culprit. Perhaps it's a deficiency of CoQ10 or something else. But such a seemingly direct correlation between the coffee consumption (or lack thereof) and the odd heart thingy sure seems to point to coffee.
Now, as far as the suffering that some coffee addicts endure - primarily killer headaches - when coming off of caffeine... Well, I'm quite fortunate there. I've never been bothered much with headaches when I've stopped coffee for a week or whatever, and this time is no different. The only 'side-effect' I've noticed is that I've had to make sure to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, I've been taking a nap pretty much every evening after work, and my brain seems to be slowly emerging from a mild fog that seemed to have started sometime around last Saturday morning. In fact, yesterday was probably the first day in this post-caffeine world that I felt as clear as I usually had.
So this morning I'm about to pop in and do an hour on the treadmill (a mix of brisk walking on the flat, alternating with periods of running on incline ...always leaves me soaked), then I'll get cleaned up and head to the store for some Seattle's Best organic, Swiss water process decaffeinated, 'coffee'. The taste should still be there. The wonderful aroma will be there. The caffeine? Well, that will be about 3mg of caffeine versus the 85mg+ of a cup of regular coffee. But at least I'll be able to enjoy the weekend morning ritual of a cup of hot black coffee and the newspaper :)
Posted by Joe Litton | March 7, 2009 in Health | Permalink | Comments (4)
