Monday

Lots of things buzzing thru my head today.  While I am generally a positive guy, it's been a rough week already.

First, my wife just informed me that our friend, Jill, passed away this morning.  While we knew this was coming, it is still difficult.  Jill was the light of every room.  Her smile could turn your day from bad to good.  She was always optimistic and cheery, even as cancer was destroying her body. 
Jill, we miss you and will love you forever.

Second, I am transitioning to a new project this week.  I have been fortunate to have been working near my house in Texas for the last 3 years.  Now I will be travelling to California to work.  To be honest, I have mixed emotions about this.  While I am blessed to have a job, travelling is no fun, especially since I have to fly on American Airlines, easily the worst airliue in the world.   This will also pull me away from my family and my community, both things I like to stay involved in.  But again, I am lucky to have a job.

Lastly, I have to comment on the Health Care bill that passed the House last night.  While I agree that HC is a mess, this bill is not the answer.  By my math, we are going to spend $940B to provide insurance, not actual care, for 32M Amercians. It's not universal coverage, as around 20M Americans will be left out.  If it was really the answer, some R's would have voted for it and so many people would not have had to have been bought off so blatantly (i.e. the Unions, Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Sen Mary Landreau of Louisiana and Rep Bart Stupak of Michigan).  More than 100 R's supported the creation of Social Sec in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. 

This Stupak guy might be the worst.  For months, he has been against the bill because of the funding for abortion.  Then, on the last day, he switches his support to the bill after Obama says he will sign an Executive Order.  You would think that Stupak is smart enough to realize that an EO can be reversed as quickly as it is written.  It means nothing.  Then this morning, we find out that his area will be more than $700K in improvements to an airport.  Wow, Stupak, if you were going to sell your vote and abandon your priniples, you should have gotten far more than that.

It also centralizes control of Student College Loans with the Dept of Ed in DC.  What does this have to do with HC? 

I am also amazed that the AARP supported this.  They are taking half a trillion dollars away from Medicare, just as the Baby Boomers are coming of age for Medicare and Pelosi says that the bill extends the life of Mediare by a decade.  That makes no sense. 

I also hear that donzens of states are considering fighting this in court due to the shift in cost from the Fed Govt to the states in the form of increased Medicaid requirements.  I hope many states do this.  There will be Constitutional questions raised.  I bet it's been a while since you read the Constitution. If I am correct, you can read it here: http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Anyway, what do you think?

Voting

I firmly beleive that voting is a responsibility, not a right.  We as citizens are required to stay informed and get our butts to the polls to cast a ballot in EVERY election, from President down to dog-catcher.

In Plano this year, we have (or are going to have) a bunch of elections.  The City Council Special Election was followed by the Texas Primary and we will have Run-Off Elections for both due to state laws.  (More on that later.)

In these Run-Off elections, as crazy as this sounds, you do not have to have voted in the original election to vote in the Run-Off.  You can vote in a Party Primary Run-Off Election as long as you didn't vote in the opposing Primary.

Early Voting for the Special Council Election between Andre Davidson and Kathy Fang is March 11 to 23.  Election Day is March 27.  All Election info can be found here: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/elections/index.jsp

I will be voting for Andre Davidson.  I have known her for many years and know where her head and heart are.  She loves this city and will be an excellent Councilwoman.  I know she will be open to input from all citizens and will research every issue thoroughly prior to deciding.

Regardless of who you are voting for, go vote!!!

Cars

I am a little fired up today. Saw an article yesterday about some "experts" prediction gas prices will be above $3 a gallon this summer across the US. The auto manufacturers (all of them) brag in commercials when they make a car that gets more than 30 mpg highway. This is nuts and we are falling for it. We should be demanding cars that get 100, 200 or even more mpg. We should also be demanding fun cars that get that mpg, not just ugly Prius-type cars. Why can't they develop hybrid or electric engines that are powerful, fast and ultra fuel-efficient? The answer is they can but the collective buying public (i.e. "us") have not forced them to through our buying habits. We are perfectly contect to drive cars that get 20 mpg in city driving.
So I was at a local Chevy dealer the other day looking at the new Camaro. (Full disclosure: I think it is an awesome-looking car and may buy the convertible in a few years.) I asked about when the convertible would be available (answer: 2011) and if hybrid was an option (answer: No). I buy sports cars because I like the way they look and drive, not to go fast. Chevy has a reliable hyrbid engine they use in the Malibu, how hard would it be to develop that for the Camaro?

What do you think?

Intro

OK, a lot of my friends have blogs and have encouraged me to start one. I have no idea how often I will post anything here, but as the saying goes, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

I have often wondered if anyone would care about me raving about things that bother me or writing about awesome stuff that my kids do. If you are wondering, there are lots of things for both categories. I guess we will now find out.