The conservative channel is called "SIRIUS Patriot."
SIRIUS Satellite Radio doesn't think you're patriotic. This is an obscenity.
SIRIUS's media relations representative for talk radio is Hillary Schupf. Her email is hschupf@siriusradio.com.
Hello Ms. Schupf -
I am an XM, not a Sirius subscriber. I've been an XM subscriber for about four years now, and have four radios on my account.
The choice of Sirius to define people who believe in any left of center politics and sociology as NOT patriotic is deeply disturbing and inconsistent with the founding principles of this country.
XM and Sirius are scheduled to merge.
If this remains the policy of Sirius, which appears to be the likely dominant entity in the proposed merger of XM and your firm, I can assure you that I can live without satellite radio as I did for the 43 years before I became an XM subscriber.
In the meantime, I intend to inform everyone with whom I have contact that XM does not so label persons who view life in a way that is not right of center as anti-American and that Sirius does. Perhaps that single market distinction can provide XM with sufficient advantage to avoid the need for the proposed merger.
It looks like rain, but not raining. I'm just lap topping away and watching a DVD. Nothing else to do here, really at this point.
So, it seems that the Minnie Phaeton is gone. It will re-appear, probably, but the Phaeton popularity is on the mend. However, today I stumbled upon ANOTHER Phaeton, that's just gorgeous. GORGEOUS, do you hear me? Overpriced, though. Bleh. Black with black.
Bram seems to have found employment here in town, and he's very pleased with those prospects. Hopefully the Comcast people can fix the internet connection tomorrow ... bleh.
I was reading today - some guy was saying he wanted a Phaeton badly, a twelve cylinder as I want to have. He wanted to know whether they were reliable, and whether it was true that an oil change cost $300.
The explanation that followed made me want the car even more. The bit about the engine compartment being completely sealed from the bottom?
Brian is going to spew his coffee when he reads this, but I am not dissuaded, I want it MORE.
Here are a few pictures of the exact one I've had dreams about driving or being driven in...
Blue leather interior! Rarer than hens teeth for the very few Phaeton W12s that were imported here. And, I think it's a custom blue color on the outside. Gorgeous.
Last night was amusing. Erik, who I rarely talk to, hit me up on IM and was talking about Houston being nuked - had I ever heard of such a thing?
Why, yes, I have!
That led to a long conversation that brought Bram in, and everyone (but me) was freaking out for a while. I was nonchalant, as I already spent my nights awake worrying about that issue. Anyway, it was a hoot all around. This morning, I could barely drag myself out of bed and get to it. I finally did, and mid-posting the garage refrigerator on Craigslist, the cable modem went out. Knowing Bram couldn't survive without internet access, I fiddled with that for about an hour, and made myself very late to the office. Bleh.
That refrigerator is generating a lot of attention, and I only thought about dealing with selling it after talking to Guy about that when his grandparents disconnected their big freezer, their electric bill plummeted. I asked Bram last night whether we really needed that fridge, and the answer was clearly no.
I just fired another client who was telling me "another loan officer told me the rate would be 6.85%" Adios.
So, it's an interesting day. I started working with a pipeline sheet, which I've never done - I've always tried to keep it in my head. It both motivates and rewards, as it shows what is actually true, and what needs to happen to keep things going. I've asked Tom to help me with that, making it more custom for my needs.
A few weeks ago, I sent an old friend a snail mail piece, nearly twelve years since we were last in touch. He wrote me back by email, and we've been having a lot of fun getting the communication re-established. It's so cool to learn about how someone else saw something and thought of something, and compare it to how it was for yourself.
Went to lunch today, had a great bowl of French Onion soup and picked up nearly $1.1 Million in new loans. Whoopie!
Tonight, Jackie goes into the tub for a soak and a bath. She'll not be happy going in, and will be VERY happy coming out.
And, we have lunch with an appraiser tomorrow .. oof. He's handsome. Okay, more workie must be done here.
First, two reviews of Michael Moore's "Sicko." A couple of quotes from the reviews to entice you to click the link and read:
There is one story in the film of a woman whose husband was denied a bone marrow transplant allegedly because it was an "experimental procedure," --- is one a thousand excuses health insurance companies use to keep from having to provide care for those whose premiums they eagerly cashed in the years before their customer got sick. But I think what got me about that particular story was the fact that this woman worked in the hospital where the board of directors of this managed care company also worked. She spoke to them personally. She wasn't just a piece of paper in an in-box. It was a real live person, a colleague and neighbor, literally begging for her husbands life ... and they said no. For profit. It makes me want to howl in pain and outrage.
(Apparently, the film is making the insurers howl too. Check out this post from Michael Moore today in which he posts an internal Blue cross memo. The rep they sent to see the movie and report back wrote: "You'd have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie.")
Moore's movie is actually quite successful in showing that people in other first world countries with universal care live very well despite the fact that they pay higher taxes for medical care (and other things) because --- they don't have to pay for medical care and those other things. The people who live middle and upper middle class lives as professionals don't lose anything --- and the society as a whole gains tremendously because those crippling worries are removed from all, the poor and middle class alike.
Is my sister reading this?
Next, an article about how the Iran-Contra affair (you don't remember that, because you intentionally forgot. The whole thing was hard to understand, no one was really driving it as a news story, and the Iran-Contra investigation committee neatly whitewashed the whole thing.)
Tell me we're not paying for that now. Tell me we're not paying for tolerating a renegade theory of Executive power. Tell me we're not hearing how inconvenient and cumbersome and counterproductive the impeachment process of the Constitution is. Tell me the Democratic candidates aren't soft-pedaling the whole issue, preferring to micromanage the end of the kind of war that the renegade theory of Executive power makes not only likely, but inevitable. (Go back and read the minority report of the Iran-Contra committee. Go see who wrote the part about how the president has an inherent right to do stuff like this. Hint -- he has a lesbian daughter, a bad heart, and lousy aim.) Tell me the press isn't running away from the gravity of the whole business. Tell me you haven't heard some anchor-drone or another sigh about how hard it all is to understand. Tell me that Bush presidencies don't invariably come down to buying the silence of the people who can put you away. Tell me Alberto Gonzales isn't Edwin Meese, except less competent. Tell me that Elliott Abrams, John Negroponte, Michael Ledeen, and the rest of the Iran-Contra Legends Tour ever would have found their bloody hands back on the levers of government if we'd done what we should have done as a nation 20 years ago. Jesus, even Ghorbanifar's back in the news.
Later today, at 3:30 Pacific/5:30 Central, you can watch the roll out ceremonies for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner - webcast at http://www.newairplane.com. As part of the ceremonies, they're going to have a sequential landing of each of the Boeing "7" aircraft, starting with the 707, through the end - presumably the 777, since the 787 hasn't flown yet.
Okay, all of you fright wingers out there - you "strict constructionists" who would have us honor and obey the intentions of the "Founding Fathers" (even though we know that's a load of crap - you're just as willing to ditch the Founding Fathers when it serves your bigoted, self-serving interests.) Here's what the Father of Our Country would have said about the current immigration buzz:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support…
May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
–George Washington, Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, Aug. 18, 1790 in: The Writings of George Washington, p. 766-67.
Thanks to the "Harper's Index" online for this quote today. Harper's seems to trust that anyone reading this piece should be able to understand the nuance. However, I don't believe that people can get a refined and elegant point such as this without having it slammed into their cranium, so I gave you a little more detail.
Yesterday, I started the post "Thursday that feels like Monday," and I got nothing but the title entered. So, although this looks like Thursday, it's actually Friday that feels like Tuesday.
Well, here I am OTB, running into work. While sometimes it seems to be the right thing to do to sleep in, this morning, getting up before 0600 and being on the 730 bus was definitely the right thing. I just can't seem to get comfortable though.
It looks like there's sunshine today! Who would have thought?
So much business came in yesterday, it was like a blizzard all day. That was pretty cool, but now I'm feeling like I need to create some organizational structure to keep it all organized and make sure that I don't drop something out. Yikes. I need for Tom to come in tomorrow and help me (or Chuck, hmm) clean off the old desktop and transfer files to the laptop. First one who responds...
And, I need to get some more filing work done on my desk. That's going to have to happen this morning.
I was thinking as I looked out over our water soaked landscape through my bedroom windows today - you know, all of this rain has kept the temperatures in Houston down below 90 for most of June and so far in July; is that such a bad thing? My power bill will be loving this.
The New York Times today has an article about flight delays and how full the airlines are. The next time you hear a talking head blather on about how there's so much overcapacity in the US airline system, answer me this: if the network carrier (United, American, Continental) load factors are all above 85% (as they are, meaning of all of the seats they operated in the previous month, 85% of them were full) how many 150 seat airplanes have to go out with 150 passengers to bring the average up to 85% of the total number of seats sold?
Answer: Most of them.
Had a dream last night about all of this business - in the dream, I just got adjusted to all of this activity that was demonstrating yesterday, and a truckload of NEW business came in. Then, I was being driven around in the back seat of a black Phaeton 4-seat, yapping on the phone. With my sister. Asking her "what is the reason for your call? How my business is doing is no business of yours."
I think I need to engage in some active forgiveness work with her.
Jackie this morning would NOT go out, wouldn't pee or go into the grass when I hooked her up on the leash anyway and dragged her out. After I ate, had two cups of coffee, showered, dressed, and came downstairs to see about catching the 7:30 bus, THEN she was all bouncy and "let's go pee, Daddy!" Well, okay. She's such a sweet soul. She needs a bath, and I have scheduled myself for work all day tomorrow. Sunday, we have our board meeting after church, so I'll be home very late then as well.
She just needs to go back to the groomer. Bleh.
The other day, I got into the car and noticed that the fuel consumption seemed to have jumped up strongly. Then, as I was driving, I was thinking "whoa! When did the engine get so powerful?"
Seems that the can of fuel system cleaner that they dumped into the car a few weeks ago has finally taken hold. Or something.
I noticed last evening OTB coming home that the drivers have adopted a pattern of moving along just around 20 miles per hour. This greatly reduces the amount of time that they're on the brake, and that they have to stop for lights. The driver this morning is going the same way. We're right now about halfway through with the total route, and we only have about ten people on the bus. After 8:00, this bus would be packed to the gills.
More reading about high speed rail yesterday. Wired's article, which I think I cross posted - if not, I'm a-gonna, was discussing the same old thing that everyone is talking about - how the energy savings alone provide enough incentive for government to create the tax breaks and eminent domain to create dedicated high speed rail routes between cities up to 500 miles apart.
Considering that the Feds won't upgrade the air traffic control system, and that the airlines are already at capacity, wouldn't it make sense to append onto the existing Interstate system and add high speed rail?
If that was done, what would it do for traffic flow on the interstate system? Of course, some businesses would suffer - when you make an adjustment somewhere, it shows up somewhere else - the airlines would have some diminished traffic, the gas stations and fast food restaurants along the interstates would have less business.
But, if it reduces the infrastructure spending on freeways, reduces pollution and fuel burn, adds productivity through recaptured time spent on travel, wouldn't those things be good? Socially and generally speaking?
This bus' brakes are grinding like mad. Yikes.
Okay, time to publish this one and see where the internet takes us next.
Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already
In April, a train built by the French engineering firm Alstom screamed along the Ligne à Grande Vitesse, the Paris-to-Strasbourg high-speed rail system, at a record- breaking 357 miles per hour. The whizzing run past Vendôme provided a glimpse of next-gen railway travel, and Alstom execs hope, set the company up for future contracts in emerging high-speed rail markets like China and India.
That the US lacks them is due neither to conspiracy nor accident. Distances between major North American cities dwarf those in Europe. (France's north-south axis is barely longer than the trip from New York to Chicago.) According to transportation geeks, high-speed rail competes with air travel only for trips under 500 miles or that take less than three hours by plane. Chicago to St. Louis could work, but New York to Denver? Nope.
Gas is also cheaper here than in Europe and the Pacific Rim. That's an incentive to drive the short hops instead of taking the train. And an even greater incentive: Our roads are almost universally awesome. "We've chosen to sink our transportation investments into the automobile," says planning guru Robert Cervero of UC Berkeley. No news flash there.
But technology and economics may be shifting to a point where regional high-speed rail is plausible. Public transit in general is looking better and better to local governments. New York City approved a new subway line, San Francisco is considering an additional trolley route, and Los Angeles might extend its subway to the beach via parts of town people actually want to go. The same holds for intercity travel. Illinois and Wisconsin recently invested in improved rail service between Chicago and Milwaukee. Ridership spiked. "If you make this available, people will recognize how valuable it is for our urban environments," says Dennis Minichello, president of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association. Put another way: If you build it, they will ride.
New technology also helps. Lighter materials, improved acceleration, and enhanced communications all translate to faster travel times and lower construction and operating costs. Until recently, the signaling systems that keep trains on course and prevent collisions were installed in the ground along the entire route. That equipment has now been replaced by cheaper satellite and wireless technologies. And there's the critical issue of tilting: Most high-speed trains ride the same rails as standard passenger and freight lines. These tracks tend to be curvy; high speed demands long straightaways. But if the trains are designed to lean inward against curves to counteract centrifugal force, they can travel faster on existing infrastructure — a major cost saver. It works in Spain, and on Amtrak's flawed but popular Acela line in the Northeast Corridor.
To really make a system work, the US needs to build dedicated high-speed tracks. "But then that costs more, and you're talking about expropriating land," one industry insider says. Eminent domain is an explosive topic in the property-rights-obsessed US. On the other hand, we did it for the Interstate Highway System. Back then, it was for the benefit of national security; Eisenhower argued that the roads might be needed to move troops. But today we know that pollution, global warming, and dependence on Middle East oil are issues of national security, too.
The big test for US high-speed rail is now under way in California, and the hurdle is political, not technical. "Lassitude is our enemy," says Quentin Kopp, chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. He's leading the campaign for a Sacramento-to-San Diego high-speed train (San Francisco to Los Angeles in two and a half hours!). A $10 billion bond measure is slated for the 2008 ballot, but it's hardly a sure bet. Despite his iridescent-green glow, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not endorsed the bond. But even if he comes around, rail riders should keep the champagne corked. In the 1990s, Texas officials pushed for high-speed rail connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, only to be squashed by a lobbying push from Southwest Airlines. This fast train thing could work, if enough people would just get on board.
So, I'm totally giving up on finding something in my considerable and useless possessions that may be the surprise piece in "Treasure in the Attic" played out in my own little eBay drama.
I researched a few antiques that have come down to me through my great grandfather, and they're worth so little on eBay that it's not worth photographing them and putting them out there. So, I've been moving some things around, displaying a few more things, and getting the front room a little more organized than it is now.
It's time to just integrate them, or stow them away.
So, last night Matticia is telling me that he's all excited about the upcoming Sweeney Todd movie with Johnny Depp as Todd.
I think I passed a gallstone when I heard it. Johnny Depp, as wonderful as he is, just doesn't strike me as the barber whose voice derives from the bowels of Hell itself. He's just a little whisp of a thing. Can he even sing? Or is this going to be like Madonna singing Evita, which still has left my hearing damaged.
My BG this morning was 87. I've NEVER had it that low, EVER. Not on arising, anyway. Mid 90s, yes.
I've been reading these articles about diabetes; how it's all about the food intake and a little exercise - that the current therapy is driven by pharma and lazy doctors. How wild.
I'm watching the DVD "The Pursuit of Happyness." It's an awesome movie. Even if you hate Will Smith.
Where has this year gone? Where has this weekend gone?
Today in church things were again awesome. We only had 12 people. However, we asked for people to stay and help me get the book cases put out, the books moved out and organized and everyone - everyone - stayed and helped out. It's not everything I'd like to accomplish yet, but it's a strong start. Hopefully, next weekend I can get some more things cleared out, and set up an office in the back.
You know, I live on a busy corner. Every day, all day and until after midnight, cars pull up at the traffic light and wait for the light to change. Every few minutes, one of those cars has a high powered thrumming stereo system that literally rattles the glassware in the house. The curio on the front wall that has 20th Century glassware in it rattles like I'm in an earthquake. About once a week, I have to open up the case and move all of the glassware back to its original position.
How is that even rational or reasonable behavior? Why aren't all of those bastards deaf already?
I can't wait until I can get those windows installed.
I had such weird dreams this weekend. Again with a dream of being at my grandparent's house in northern Michigan, in the basement, but this time, the sunlight was streaming in the windows. I haven't really read enough into it. I dreamed about my aunt, she was disappointed in me. It was just .. random and hard to understand.
I finally set up the church's merchandise store. I worked on the Fabulair merchandise today.
Bram was suggesting he wanted to get a black schnauzer. Uh ...
Chuck and George have a new roomie who's a landscaper; I think that this week, he's going to come out and design me a new front patch. That will be great.
So much to accomplish this week. I'm looking forward to having Wednesday off - I'm just going to sleep.
Here's a video of the Shanghai Maglev train. It only travels from the airport to downtown. At 431 km/hour. 273 mph.
Just what if ..
Let's just say that the Texas high speed rail project was brought back to life. And, let's say for sake of argument that said rail triangle was constructed - and, to quell the Negative Nancies that bitch about this rail triangle slaughtering inattentive soccer moms in their Suburbans and kids with learner permits at grade crossings - let's just say that it was constructed on elevated tracks.
Notice in the video that it takes the train fewer than three minutes to get up to full speed. The whole trip is 22 miles - about that from downtown Houston to the Woodlands, and lasts about seven minutes.
Imagine for a minute that you got onboard the train in downtown Houston. If you don't live in downtown houston, you took a connector up from Friendswood, or Pearland, or Katy, or Sugar Land. You walked over to the train, and you hopped onboard.
And sat down.
The train pulls out from the station, and you're sitting there with your laptop, or your latte from Fivebucks. While the train picks up speed, you notice that traffic on I-45 north isn't jammed up like it always is .. well, not quite so badly.
And, seven minutes later, the train slows down and stops in the Woodlands. A few people get off, and a few more get on. The train pulls out.
Let's say that this is at 7:30 in the morning, and you have a meeting in Dallas at 9:30. You left the house at 6:30, and took the car from your home in Royal Oaks to the Hillcroft Transit Center, which took you about 20 minutes on the Westpark Tollroad, and about 17 minutes if you took the light rail from Kirkwood to the HTC. The light rail from HTC to the downtown station takes another 15 minutes. Plenty of time to grab a latte from Fivebucks, which has a concession in the terminal.
And, from the Woodlands, we have 211 miles to go to downtown Dallas.
Four minutes up to speed, and you've passed through about 15 miles - 71 minutes later, you're pulling into the Dallas downtown rail station.
The taxi stand is only some 400 steps from the train platform, so you hoof it out to the cab line, and grab a cab to the building on Central in which your meeting is being held. 25 minutes in the cab, and you're walking out on the dot to take your meeting.
After your meeting, you grab a bite, and cab it back to the station for the 2:10 train back home.
At 3:30 you're in downtown Houston. You walk to another platform, get on the rail back to your office in Greenway Plaza, and at 3:45, you're walking into the lobby at 11 Greenway, heading for the elevator.
Compare this to how we do it now.
Southwest, come the end of August, will have 30 flights a day between Houston and Dallas/Love. Everyone's convinced that Houston Hobby is the best airport in the city (except for those who fly a lot) and so, we'll start out leaving the house.
Your meeting is at 9:30, and from Dallas Love to Central and, say, Throckmorton, that's going to take twenty minutes by cab. So, you have to arrive before 9:10. You need to leave a little time on the arrival end to wait for all of the people in front of you who were in boarding group "A" to unload their bags, skis, laptop cases and baby seats and de-plane. So, you need to be in Dallas by 8:55ish.
Scheduled block to block times from Hobby to Love are 55 minutes, so you need to be on the 8:00 a.m. flight.
It's a weekday, so you'll need to be at the airport at least by 7:15 to clear security. You printed your boarding passes online, so you don't have to check in anywhere, just get there and stand on queue with everyone else in the "B" boarding group. This is really cutting it close though, 45 minutes, so you plan on being at Hobby at 7:00 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. departure.
Now, from Royal Oaks, we're going to assume that the rail is available (apples to apples and all) so you can either take your car (Westpark tollroad to US 59 to I45 south to the airport exits - give it 45 minutes if you're REALLY confident) or take the rail into town (37 minutes) and then out to Hobby on the rail line - another 20.
So, you're leaving your house at 6:00.
This is assuming everything works as it should. If it's thunderstormy - you're late in Dallas. If there's ice - you're late in Dallas. If it's raining and you took the car - you're missing your flight and you're late in Dallas.
But, everything goes as it should. So, you're saving a good thirty minutes on trip time up to Dallas this way. Time at home. Sleeping in.
While you're on the train, you're laptopping it. The ride is as smooth as sitting at your desk. Thundershowers? It provides visual interest through the windows.
Now, let's look at the return. Remember, on the high speed rail, we're back at the office at 3:45.
So, we leave lunch at 1:30. Our meeting mate in Dallas gives us a ride over to Love. We get there at about 1:50, so we can catch the next flight out at .. probably 2:30, giving us a little time to clear security. We push back, wheels up and we're at Hobby at 3:30.
Are you seeing where we're going here?
3:30, you stand up with all the other lemmings, and wait to de-plane. You head out to the light rail, back downtown and it's now 4:10. Change trains, and you're at the office 4:30ish.
You've saved one hour and twenty-five minutes today. The frustration level is also much lower.
What could you do with an extra hour and twenty-five minutes, not to mention being able to work the entire ride up and back, because you don't have to stow your laptop for takeoff/landing?
How many cars would it take off the roads?
What stands in the way? Well, several things. Firstly, Texas is all about private enterprise, and private enterprise is all about getting the money for free from the government. Secondly, unless the real estate developers here can figure out a way to make money on it, it's unlikely to gain much lobbying support.
Then, there's Southwest Airlines, who will definitely lobby against having their Texas Triangle business taken away from them. Why?
Southwest has 30 flights a day each way between Houston and Dallas. That's 8160 seats a day, and they're usually full. Their financial gross from that one city pair operation is approximately $563,000 a DAY. $180,172,800 a year, if you only look at weekdays.
That's money that's worth fighting for.
Think of the major cities separated by a few hundred miles which could be successfully paired with high speed rail.
