Weekend Entertainment

COPYRIGHTED PHOTO -- FULL CREDIT GIVEN TO "DOCTOR FUN"


This past weekend was filled with a range of entertainment and summer activities primarily built around celebrating my 6th month anniversary with my girlfriend (JAN). We started with dinner at "Azia" on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Friday night. Azia, ihttp://www.aziarestaurant.com/food/nouveau.htm, s a very nice pan-Asian restaurant where the owner walks around asking patrons about their meals. I loved their decor, quality of wait staff, the valet parking service, and of course the food. For an appetizer I shared the "cranberry puffs" with JAN but focused on my own platter of maki sushi which was excellent. My main dish with a combination of scallops, shrimp, and calamari with a "three star" hot sauce which was very tasty. For dessert we finished with the "Almond Joy" ice cream dish which was not only excellent but THE perfect "cool" dish after my spicy main course!! I would rate Azia with a "4.5" (out of 5) so give it a try if you find yourself in the area.

Following dinner we traveled to Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis for some stand up comedy featuring Tom Simmons who has played on Comedy Central. Clearly Mr. Simmons is no fan of President Bush based on his joke selection. Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the evening was watching the woman in the FRONT row who talked louder than the comedians did when she ordered drinks -- Simmons made fun of her but she had no clue she was the butt of the joke. Finally I would point out that each guest was given a promotional DVD of "Lucky Louie" which is a new comedy on HBO apparently. I appreciated the marketing effort but had HBO hired me as a consultant (resume ready if needed) I would have arranged for the club to play a short video clip of the DVD on their pre-show screen which was playing some comedy clips anyway along with having drinks served in plastic tumblers with the HBO logo printed on them -- my fraternity party training has paid off :)

On Saturday JAN and I ran in a 5K run in Burnsville to support the "Tender Hearts Foundation" to raise funds to help homeless children. I can only reflect on how positive and upbeat the event atmosphere was with DJ music, a pancake breakfast, and hundreds of runners working hard for a souvenir t-shirt. Contrast this charity fundraising event with any visit to a government office such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Instead of government "helping" people in need it should leave us with our assets so we can support the creation of more charity organizations.

Later on Saturday JAN, her mum, and I enjoyed seeing the "Da Vinci Code" which I am happy to rate with a "4" and commend Ron Howard (loved him as Opie and Richie) as the film's director. I enjoyed the book and the film. Again, if the Catholic Church wants to hire me as a consultant my resume is available :) The Church's (I am Lutheran, more Reformationist actually since I avoid cult of personality as much as I can -- for full disclosure) attack on this book helped Dan Brown sell millions of copies. Instead I would have loved to see the Church give an advance to a Believer/talented writer to have him/her write a work of fiction telling the story of Jesus from the Church perspective to reach the masses the way Dan Brown has done.

After the film JAN and I hosted our friends Rich and Alison for some classic summer grilling. The weather was perfect and the food was excellent especially the dessert which was "flavour burst" butter pecan ice cream from "Kalli's Popcorn Shop" in Apple Valley which is owned by our neighbors - Bob and Kathy. Kalli's is my kind of small business serving pop corn, ice cream, and gift tins so my rating is a "5" in terms of customer service, quality, and atmosphere for similar shops.

Enjoy the summer,

Todd

Four More Years!!

This week I made a short trip to Holland Lake in Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, Minnesota to watch Governor Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, http://www.timpawlenty.com/, announce their quest for re-election to serve as Minnesota's executives.

When I was a lobbyist years ago I knew both of these people when they served in the Minnesota House of Representatives although I knew Lt. Governor Molnau better. It is very easy for me to state that of all the candidates running for Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty is by far our best choice. While I would like to see him be much more aggressive on cutting government spending his overall political ideology, his personality, and love of all things Minnesotan leave me confident in his ability to be our CEO for four more years.

Today though I want to focus on Lt. Governor Molnau since I regret not asking the following question at the Holland Lake event since the media dominated the event -- hey, shouldn't bloggers qualify for some form of "credentialed media" status? :

QUESTION

"Governor Pawlenty, let me applaud our decision years ago to appoint Lt. Governor Molnau as Commissioner of the MN Department of Transportation. Not only did this appointment serve taxpayers well by having Ms. Molnau "wear two hats" since the Office of Lt. Governor's job duties are rather limited this appointment also gave Ms. Molnau an opportunity to exhibit her management abilities. So the question is -- "given her performance record what department would you appoint Ms. Molnau as Commissioner when you two are re-elected, perhaps the MN Department of Human Services?"

I have not looked at this issue for years but I believe that something like 43 out of our 50 states have the office of Lieutenant Governor so if the job duties are limited to "wait around in case the governor is incapacitated or dies............." for any of these 42 other Lieutenant Governors then let their respective Governors appoint them to manage some arm of the state government to better serve taxpayers.

Minnesota's primary election is in September and the general election of course is in November so get out on the campaign trail to support your favorite candidates.

Vote don't bitch,

Todd

"Thank You" is an understatement

On May 30th my girlfriend and I attended the Humphrey Institute's 2006 Public Leadership Awards dinner, http://www.hhh.umn.edu, on the University of Minnesota campus. We sat at a table organized by my friends, Tom and Karen, so we really enjoyed the conversation regardless of the official program. The program itself was interesting since it honored "individuals, organizations, or projects that have made demonstrated contributions to the common good through public leadership and service." The 2006 award recipients included:

former US Senator George Mitchell
former Minnesota Supreme Court chief Justice Kathleen Blatz
Gary Cunningham, CEO of Northpoint Health and Wellness Center
Geri Joseph, former US Ambassador and community leader

All four speakers are clearly leaders in their own right. I must say that I do not share Senator Mitchell's political views but I did find his speech entertaining and since he is no longer serving in the US Senate perhaps I had a sense of comfort that he could not raise my taxes anymore :) But overall I would say that Gary Cunningham is a future leader worth watching so I hope my free market friends are nurturing his thinking to leverage his talent for improving the lives of our fellow citizens.

Now this dinner event was held on May 30th just a day after Memorial Day so upon reflection I can't help but think this would have been an ideal opportunity to recognize the contributions, public service, and sacrifices of the nation's veterans who guard our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness -- freedoms that allow us to enjoy public assemblies such as the Humphrey Institute's dinner event.

My grandfather, three uncles, and several fraternity brothers have served in the US Armed Forces so let me thank all of them for their service in what is unfortunately a necessary role of government given the tribal mentality of most nation-states as they compete for power, markets, and resources. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (USA) and 138 years later we are still producing military veterans so we have work left to be done.

Merci, gracias, mange tak, grazie, danke to all veterans,

Todd

Sunshine State

To take advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend I gave the entire Space Beagle staff some time off so I could enjoy some scuba diving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my girlfriend ("JAN") who is a very natural diver and the ultimate dive buddy!! There are of course better dive locations than Fort Lauderdale but the city amenities such as restaurants, airport, beach walk, and shops combined with the diving offer a great vacation value.

For probably the fourth time now I went diving with Pro Dive which is on Seabreeze Drive next to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. This is a well run operation despite the large dive boats in their fleet known as "cattle cars" but I was happy and relaxed to be diving. Due to the thunderstorms the water visibility was limited to less than 30 feet but we did see a variety of wildlife including -- lobsters, manta ray, nurse shark, and healthy corals.

After diving in the ocean I love to dive into some food so here are my reviews of local restaurants we patronized:

Angelo's Pizza and Pasta - located in a strip mall known as Harbor Shops this was a very pleasant discovery complete with great staff. Let me assure you that their "X-Large" pizza is indeed large but I was happen to meet their challenge -- nothing better than cold pizza for breakfast!! This is a restaurant where the "small" house salad can easily be shared by two people. Since "Elements" in Phoenix, Arizona is the ultimate "5" rating I can't give Angelo's anything higher than a "3" rating but this is an ideal place to bring your family.

Joe Picasso's Pottery Painting Studio and Cafe - located on one of my favorite avenues, "Las Olas Boulevard" , is an ideal oasis from the Florida heat. This is an ice cream parlor, coffee shop, and art gallery all round into one -- imagine the banker who had to review that business plan!! I enjoyed an Italian soda and the very comfortable furniture which I trust you will find very nice should you visit. An easy "3" rating for being a cool place to relax.

Mark's on Las Olas - saving the best location for last is one of my favorite restaurants so let me say up front they get a "4" rating which would have been a "4.5" had the hostess been pleasant when I asked to borrow an umbrella when I left to retrieve our car after dinner. My starter was scallops followed by a beef filet that essentially crumbled in my mouth since it was so tender it did not require chewing :) JAN and I shared two chocolate desserts including a triple mousse selection and a hazelnut cake which were excellent. Our waitress was first class and should clearly be promoted to serve as Mark's chief hostess.

Following dinner at Mark's we shopped in a little boutique shop known as "Elements on Las Olas" (not to be confused with the Phoenix restaurant) where we bought a few gifts for family members. Elements was having their "50% off summer clearance sale" and the two owners could not have been better shop owners. My only suggestion to elements is for them to offer a complimentary glass of wine in the evening as people browse - no doubt that would encourage sales since you need some time to review their unique inventory of housewares/interior decorating items.

Keep your feet in the sand,

Todd

Land of 10,000 Ideas

Last week I attended the Annual Dinner of Minnesota's conservative think tank, Center of the American Experiment, ("Center") http://www.amexp.org, with General Tommy Franks who led the invasion of Iraq.

The event itself was probably deemed a success by most guests since the ballroom at the RiverCentre in St. Paul was nearly filled though I did spot some empty tables in the back of the room among my fellow groundlings :) and because General Franks served large helpings of "pro-Iraq War red meat" for this conservative crowd. For a guy that was dismissed from college for bad grades General Franks has accomplished more than most college graduates do in their lifetimes. From my perspective General Franks' speech was too dominated by defending Secretary of War (okay, "Defense", I am an aspiring historian) Donald Rumsfeld amid a downpour of Oklahoma/Texas local language phrases -- perhaps English really should be declared our official language!!! :)

Like any consumer when I write a check ($125.00 per ticket in this case) I do it with an expectation -- since this event was hosted by a MINNESOTA think tank I wanted to leave the event with some ideas on what we could do in the public policy and business community to better the State of Minnesota. According to most rankings Minnesota is the 4th highest taxed state in the USA so I really expect entities who declare themselves Minnesota-focused entities like the Center to advance some policy solutions such as the adoption of a flat income tax. I have enjoyed attending the Center's events over the years but after reviewing their literature table (their "Quarterly" publication looks just like academic journals found in universities which I assure you will NOT be made by the vast majority of politicians or media contacts the Center might want to influence) at this dinner I am convinced they need some re-engineering, re-focus, and re-branding as either the Minnesota-focused entity we need OR to tell the world they are a "conservative think tank based in Minnesota.........."

What is needed?

Minnesota needs a public policy think tank solely focused on reforming Minnesota's socialist thought process and restrictions on free markets -- perhaps called the "Minnesota Institute" -- to guide a future generation of decision makers.

The North Star is tarnished,

Todd

Please Talk with Each Other

As a sports fan I have very mixed emotions regarding the construction of new sports stadiums when tax money is involved. Here in Minnesota the public debate has been dominated for years but the "need" for new stadiums to be built for the -- Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, and the University of Minnesota Gophers (the "U"). While I am not an alum of the "U" I do love college football and I love my adopted state of Minnesota so I would write a personal check to help the U build a new stadium just like I would for my beloved Iowa State University Cyclones -- their respective conferences are the "BIG" 10 and "BIG" 12 not the "SMALL 10 and 12". Football IS a big deal in these conferences especially with the University of Michigan regularly having over 100,000 fans attend their football games, fans that CHOOSE to attend the games by voting with their feet and wallets.

Now stadiums for our Vikings and Twins are a bit different scenario than for the Gophers. During the 2006 Minnesota legislative session legislators approved a bill to create a stadium authority responsible for building an outdoor/open air baseball stadium for the Twins. The Vikings made a last minute "me too" lobbying push to have an open air football stadium added to the Twins' legislation which ultimately failed so the Vikings must wait for the 2007 session.

The problem here of course is that years ago Minnesota's leaders created the "Metrodome" which I call the "city morgue" since it has all the aesthetic appeal of toe tags and big drawers :) From an economic development argument standpoint the "Dome" is a complete failure since the only economic growth in the area around the Dome is "Hubert's" , a local sports bar. The new Twins stadium in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis will primarily be built using a local option sales tax for residents of Hennepin County amounting to 3 cents on a $20 purchase. Now as a resident of Dakota County I can easily support such a funding mechanism from a selfish standpoint although I will pay my share when I utilize the stadium for a game or concert.

Since the Vikings' stadium dreams are still pending I want to offer some advice - SIT DOWN WITH THE MALL OF AMERICA TO CUT A DEAL!! It is a lost opportunity now but years ago the Vikings, Twins, Gophers, and the Wild (hockey) could have agreed to issue one Request for Proposal (RFP) calling for bids to build 4 stadiums together which clearly would have attracted the interest of major constructions companies since building 4 stadiums at the same time would have aggregated demand for steel, cement, etc. thus leading to a crazy economic concept known as -- VOLUME DISCOUNTS!!! Anyway, for 2007 the Mall of America's (MOA) Phase II expansion construction plan in Bloomington should be combined with the Vikings' quest for a new stadium. The MOA should drop their idea to build a hockey rink in Phase II and the Vikings should drop their plans to build the "Northern Lights" sports, entertainment, and retail complex in Anoka County to build a joint facility with the MOA.

Now that is an ideal partnership utilizing current public infrastructure.

Skol Vikings!

Todd

Simple Pleasures

Let it be known that I listen to my blog readership which has encouraged me to write about some "lighter topics" beyond how evil governments are, how corrupt the United Nations is, and how bad the customer service can be in Europe :)

So today's posting is just fluff since it is merely a list of simple pleasures that I enjoy in my personal life. My list follows below but of course I would love to hear your own personal items:

• Jogging with my iPod
• Eating pizza with friends
• Taking a nap on my couch
• Sleeping with ear plugs and an eye shade
• Watching "24" with my girlfriend
• Breakfast on my patio during the "6 magical weeks of beautiful weather" in Minnesota
• Eating my mother's "bing cherry bars"
• Riding my bicycle to the gym to lift weights
• Canoeing back to my campsite to read a book
• Enjoying the silence and isolation provided by scuba diving
• Posting on my blog/personal newspaper

Undoubtedly I have overlooked some simple pleasures but that is the beauty of free thought and the freedom to change one's life. Of course I must highlight the "common link" these simple pleasures share -- NONE OF THEM ARE CREATED BY OR ARE DEPENDENT ON GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS!!! -- although I am certain the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would love to analyze the fat content of my mother's bing cherry bars. Thus I am forced to eat the entire batch once she has baked them to avoid house-by-house inspections by FDA storm troopers.

So much for the "lighter topics" :-)

Enjoy your choices,

Todd

So they loaded up the truck and moved to...........

Based on my blog postings regular Space Beagle readers know that I am addicted to the various "rankings" produced by various organizations --- world's worst dictators, highest taxed states in the USA, etc. -- so you won't be surprised by today's posting which is based on Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's newest ranking - "50 Smart Places to Live".

Kiplinger's, http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance, ranked US cities according to the following criteria:

-cost of living and housing
-quality health care
-low crime rate
-education
-quality of life
-cultural amenities
-economy
-transportation

Their Top Ten Cities included:

#1 Nashville, Tenn.Our top pick offers affordable homes, a mild climate and a phenomenal entertainment scene that goes far beyond country.

#2 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.The Twin Cities offer a hip and progressive atmosphere with a midwestern sensibility, multiple cultural outlets, pro teams in all four major sports, a dozen universities and colleges, and a diverse economy.

#3 Albuquerque, N.M.This laid-back city offers resort-town ambience, a boomtown economy and cow-town prices.

#4 Atlanta, Ga.The capital of Georgia is a vibrant city with a rich history, good health care, a great cultural scene and genteel neighborhoods shaded by magnificent dogwood and magnolia trees.

#5 Austin, Tex.Home to the University of Texas, the state capitol, the Zachary Scott Theatre and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, Austin is a sophisticated salsa of culture, history and politics.

#6 Kansas CityThis city split along state lines offers something for everyone: from stately houses to downtown lofts and world-class museums to barbecue.

#7 Asheville, N.C.A virtually franchise-free downtown, world-class cuisine, amazing crafts, live music venues and fine arts make this city tucked into the Blue Ridge mountain range one of a kind.

#8 Ithaca, N.Y.True, it's in the Finger Lakes boonies of central New York, but Ithaca is an Ivy League outpost with great food, beautiful scenery and Naderite politics.

#9 Pittsburgh, Pa.Currently undergoing a renaissance, this hidden gem has distinctive neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, glittering skyscrapers, upscale shops and a diversified economy.

#10 Iowa City, IowaAn oasis on the prairie, this wholesome middle-American city is bursting with creative and intellectual energy.

Granted I am biased since I live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area but I have to agree with Kiplinger on this Top Ten ranking for our metro area. Clearly we still have some transportation congestion problems and our housing market is flat now but overall this is an ideal area to work and live. One suggestion I would offer Kiplinger is to add one more factor to their criteria - "political participation, civil society, and corruption" - to round out their analysis since civil society is an essential element for overall quality of life.

See you at city hall,

Todd

Walls of Waste

Throughout the centuries of human history enormous amounts of money and labor have been devoted to the construction of walls -- around castles, around city states, and even between nations. After reading today's newspaper headline, "Senate Votes to Put Fence on Border", regarding the US Senate's plan to create a 370 mile "triple barrier" fence along the US-Mexico border my first thought was of some of my favorite fences/walls in the world:

1.) Hadrian's Wall -- to keep the Scots out of the Roman Empire. Result -- Rome went out of business :)

2.) Great Wall of China -- to keep invaders out of China. Result -- today this one-party state has built a "wall" on the Internet to keep out bad thoughts like personal liberty.

3.) Berlin Wall -- to keep the Evil West out of the Workers' Paradise that was East Germany. Result -- West and East Germany re-united and the wall came down but was replaced by today's "wall" known as the European Social Model which is the world's largest producer of economic stagnation.

4.) Maginot Line -- built by the French to keep the German military out of France. Result - German paratroopers landed on the opposite side of the wall and shot the French since no guns were installed on the French side of the wall. Not only a waste of French francs but an incredible waste of human life.

5.) Israel -- In an effort to REALLY upset the Palestinians the Israeli government is extending its wall system to create a mind set of caged rats. Result -- more "holy" war but yet Nobel Peace Prizes are still awarded for anyone that "tries" to secure peace in the Middle East. Note to Nobel Committee -- why don't you try to award "success" one year versus "nice attempts"?!!

However, this article failed to mention the plan's monetary cost -- but who cares what the cost is for this exciting public works project right?? This will make us safe from terrorists and even worse...................... low cost hotel cleaning staff!!! I am counting on my friends at Citizens Against Government Waste, http://www.cagw.org, to convince Congress this new wall is a complete waste of money. This waste was highlighted on CNN this morning via a story they had regarding tunnels that have been created under the US-Mexico border used for smuggling drugs and humans apparently. So if Mexicans can't walk across the border or tunnel their way to the USA why not use the "Maginot option" by flying a plane over the US border to have Mexicans parachute into the US of A? Would our next move be the scrambling of F-18s to bring such planes down?

Okay, I hear you asking me -- "so what Space Beagle, it is easy to trash this wall idea but what would you propose we do to live in peace and harmony beyond drinking a Coca Cola together while singing?"

Well, here we go........................there are 535 Members in the US Congress and while I have not checked with all of them I feel rather confident that none of them have proposed the following piece of legislation which I call the "Space Beagle Wall"(SBW). The SBW's central theme is a crazy one -- it uses the power of the referendum to let voters determine their fates not public officials. I propose we secure an international treaty with the United Mexican States (Mexico's official name) which allows each of their 31 states to conduct a binding referendum watched by a group of international observers. These states include:

UNITED MEXICAN STATES:

Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan, Zacatecas

The single referendum question would be whether or not the citizens of the respective state want to secede from Mexico to join the United States of America as "states of the Union" bound by the US Constitution and all respective laws while completely renouncing all ties to the United Mexican States -- a clean break and transfer from one nation-state to another if the voters choose via the ballot box not via military operations.

Now THAT is what I call immigration reform. We have accepted economic refugees from all around the world so if the Mexican economy is that poorly managed by the current government let us provide the opportunity to Mexicans to fully assimilate into Americans by casting their vote not jumping over a fence.

Fences are for domestic animals,

Todd

Creative Indeed

Last night my girlfriend hosted me at Cirque du Soleil's (CDS) "Delirium" show at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. This show is described as focused on:

THE MUSIC OF DELIRIUM
When the idea of a show centered upon Cirque du Soleil music came to Guy Laliberté, he immediately thought 'urban tribal beat'. Those three words have inspired each member of the creative team. 'Urban' reflects the society in which we live: modern, chaotic and everevolving.

This was my first experience with a CDS show despite the fact that a fraternity brother worked for them for several years in Las Vegas. Overall Delirium was a fantastic show which combined music, costumes, acrobatics, and high level visual effects into a very entertaining package. I was most impressed by the malegymnastss who presented a clear argument for the importance of Physical Education classes in the American school system -- really some incredible athletes. However, equally entertaining was the pre-show warm up singer known as "Nitza". She has a very powerful voice coupled with a solid stage presence.

One visual effect I nearly missed was the projected "velvet stage curtain" (like you would see in front of a theatre's stage) that created the image of an opened, dark red curtain on the platform Delirium's performers were on.

Based on the crowd's reaction this show was very well received and clearly showed why Delirium is the number one concert in the USA today.

Watch the balloon,

Todd

Exchange Program

As I complete my week of working in Brussels here is a front page headline from today's International Herald Tribune (IHT) newspaper -- "Antwerp on edge after killing prompts racial hate worries" -- which is a story regarding the murder of a black woman and a white child she was caring for apparently murdered by a "black-clad teenager with with a shaven skull and a new weapon.............." Timing is everything!! I am doing a day trip to Antwerp today -- typically known as the diamond capital of the world -- but it appears the city's production of skin heads is increasing as evidenced by the rise of the Flemish Interest political party which has an "anti-foreigner program." Unfortunately the IHT did not elaborate what the elements of this program are but we could see the results in October 2006 when municipal elections are scheduled. I should note though that the Flemish Interest party did "condemn Thursday's murder."

Clearly a perfect example of cultures clashing in a Europe that prides itself on its ability to blend diverse cultures, languages, and political systems into the bureaucratic utopia known as the European Union. Another example of cultural friction also noted in today's IHT via an editorial is the decision made by 80 members of the Nukak tribe in Colombia to "renounce their ancestral ways" of living in the Colombian jungle to join the "modern world" in the nearby village of San Jose del Guaviare -- no metropolitan area by any means but clearly a different world for the Nukak.

What struck me most was this (numerous adjectives could be inserted here - "elitist, , pessimistic") statement in IHT's editorial:

"The Nukak have every right to make this decision for themselves. But it's hard to escape the feeling that their self-sustaining existence - which went almost entirely unnoticed by the rest of the world - was holding something open for us, something that has now been lost."

Hey, come on IHT (published by the New York Times, NYT) staff!!! Why don't you save what you fear being "lost" by leaving your modern world, along with some of Hollywood's finest social engineers/policy experts commonly known as actors and actresses, by moving to the Colombian jungle to learn the way of the Nukak culture. I suggest we send 40 staff from the IHT/NYT and 40 of Hollywood's brightest :) stars to the Nukaks' homeland to replace the 80 Nukaks who left the jungle for the local village in an exchange program to benefit Mother Earth.

See you at the village elders' meeting,

Todd

Springtime in Brussels

This week I have been working in Brussels which is experiencing very beautiful spring-like weather. The trees in the park are filled with leaves which makes my jogging in the park very pleasant. Sadly, these trees are in danger -- not from evil capitalists wanting to clear cut city parks -- but instead the danger comes from the European Union's bureaucratic machine which last year produced 1,900 TONS of written materials including reports, press releases, etc. according to a recently completed report published in the Financial Times' Observer column (May 11, 2006).

Call me a tree hugger if you want but I would much prefer more trees in the world instead of more multi-colored brochures explaining who's who in the European Commission. "Save a tree, fire a bureaucrat" -- I believe Henry David Thoreau stated when he was wandering about his pond :)

No, everything in Brussels is not bad. Here are some nice experiences I had during the week:

• "Inside Man" -- I must say this is the first Spike Lee joint (film) that I have enjoyed throughly which I saw at UGC's Toison d'or location in Brussels. This is a well written story based on a banker's dark past and a group of bank "robbers" who apparently work at the Justice League fighting evil. Jodie Foster plays a very interesting "facilitator" who essentially blackmails her clients, one against the other, to help them achieve what they want while she gets paid very well for these services. The extra entertainment value for me is watching an American film with a foreign audience especially when you hear a line in the movie like, "Albania, Armenia, what's the difference?" to which an theatre audience member burst out with, "oh, my God....." in disbelief of Americans' lack of geographic knowledge (see my posting - "Watch More Dora" for background) . I will award Mr. Lee with a "3.5" rating.
• "Men's Place" by Guido De Nutte -- NO, this is not a strip club this is a upscale barber with reasonable rates. This is probably THE best haircut/customer service I have received in my adult life. Were this a restaurant review I would award Men's Place with a "5" -- outstanding. Visit them at - 9A rue de l'industrie just off rue Belliard.

Bon soir,

Todd

We Know What You Are Thinking

Due to the nature of my work I travel extensively which like all things has its positives and negatives. One thing I always enjoy when traveling is reading the local newspaper wherever I am staying -- please don't be like the woman Jimmy Buffett mentioned in his book, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty", who Buffett overheard say to her husband while she was sitting in an open air cafe somewhere in the Caribbean, "Henry, they don't even have a New York Times here!!!" Now that is no way to live - travel to a foreign destination and expects its culture to be exactly like your home area.

Now that is the lighter side of this posting since the topic I am covering today is the "death penalty" concept. What inspired this was an editorial in the Rocky Moutain News newspaper (April 22, 2006 I believe) which read - "A life sentence, not death: A proper fate for Moussaoui" which of course referred to the jury decision for Zacarias Moussaoui, the "19th hijacker" from the September 11th attacks who apparently majored in Hate Studies at university.

As I read the editorial I was reminded of some TV reporting on this case where someone posed the question -- "the decision for the jury is whether or not to apply the death penalty for a crime that Moussaoui PLANNED to commit."

The key word there is PLANNED in case you missed it. If you have ever seen the film, "Minority Report" (yes a Tom Cruise film I watched to the end unlike the incredibly poor "War of the Worlds but I digress.......) you know the concept presented by the film. Essentially the future world is a utopia where crimes have been eliminated because the "justice" system has three people floating in water telling (forecasting) the special police agents like Mr. Cruise which citizens PLAN to commit crimes and when by looking into the future via a telepathic power apparently unknown in our current, primitive society.

http://www.usfca.edu/pj/minorityreport_bergman.htm -- "Minority Report"

By NO means would I ever defend Moussaoui's role in the September 11th attacks or his hate-filled speeches but I remain extremely concerned that an American jury was on the brink of applying the death penalty - which is rather final I think you will agree ;) - to a human being who PLANNED to harm others. Busting rocks in the Big House is clearly a better option.

I could say more but the Pre-Cogs already know what I want to say,

Todd

Sweet Charity

When I started my first job at age 11 washing dishes at a local restaurant I learned a few important lessons that shaped my thinking today:

• Getting educated to earn more money is much better than the "false charity" of mandated increases in minimum wages
• Government likes to tax everyone -- even though I was making $1.20 per hour at the time
• I much prefer to decide which charities I want to support with my personal funds versus the practice of governments taxing us and then offering "grants" to their favorite non-government entities. Yes, this includes my opposition to President Bush's faith-based initiative -- I much prefer putting my cash directly into the collection plate after the sermon at my church -- now that is transparency!!!

Thanks to my girlfriend's own charity I am now addicted to reading "Men's Health" ("health" widely defined to include physical, mental, and financial) magazine so this posting is focused on their April 2006 article - "How Charitable is Your City?" which ranked 100 US cities' residents in terms of supporting charities/non-profits via cash donations and volunteering their time. I won't reconstruct the entire list but here is an overview for your consideration:

1. Atlanta, Georgia

2. Washington DC

3. Wilmington, Delaware

4. San Francisco, California

5. St. Paul, Minnesota

6. Minneapolis, Minnesota

7. Oakland, California

8. Birmingham, Alabama

9. Richmond, Virginia

10. Charlotte, North Carolina

A few observations on this Top Ten list -- 4 out of the 10 are Southern cities (a cultural element at work here perhaps?) , 2 are in California, and 2 are in Minnesota which I am proud of as a resident of Minnesota but also shocked since our state is the 4th highest taxed state in the USA yet we still support charities in a substantial way.

And coming is last at #100 is -- Manchester, New Hamphire -- in the "Live Free or Die" state which is a creed I subscribe to so I can't believe Manchesterians (a word?) are heartless. Such a ranking deserves further consideration by my free market think tank friends who belong to this organization -- http://www.spn.org

Write a check before Uncle Sam takes it,

Todd

Taxatives

While the USA's tax filing day (April 17) was nearly a month ago the following statistics are disturbing enough that they are worth reading through anytime during the year (Source: Wall Street Journal, April 15-16, 2006):

• Tax receipts -- for all levels of government as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product include -- Sweden 50.6%, France 43.4%, UK 35.6%, Germany 35.5%, USA 25.6%, Japan 25.3%, and Mexico 19.1%
• Tax Audits -- the Internal Revenue Service focused most of its tax audit resources in 2004 on two income tax brackets; $100k to $200k (at 1.41% of all returns being audited) and less than $25,000 (at 1.48%). I think we can safely conclude that if you are among the poorest of America's poor the IRS is watching you very closely -- for what I have no idea, perhaps fearing you will work your way out of poverty!!!???
• Tax preparers -- the USA has 1.2 million professional tax preparers but only 836,000 doctors. Now this is completely wrong since I clearly need a doctor after I process my paperwork for sending on to my tax preparer.
• Returns to States -- New Mexico does the best at capturing US federal tax dollars since it gets $2 in federal spending for every dollar paid by New Mexico's residents while New Jersey is dead last since it receives only 55 cents for every $1 in federal taxes paid by its residents. So has this wealth redistribution made New Mexico a wealthy state today? No, it remains one of nation's poorest states.

Dr. Steve Forbes please report to surgery,

Todd

Menu for Child Abuse

My adopted state of Minnesota prides itself on being ranked as the #1 healthiest state in the country nearly annually so this recent story really caught my attention since the people involved are natives of St. Paul, Minnesota. Coincidentally, across the river Mayor Rybak of Minneapolis was recently named one of "fittest mayors in the USA" (http://www.minneapolis.org/athletic/)

The story I am talking about is a 4 year old girl who recently appeared on the "Maury Povich" TV show -- no I did not watch the show but read about it while reading a newspaper on an EXERCISE bike. Briana Gayden is a 120 pound, 4 year old --- by contrast I am a male who weighed 135 pounds when I was 15 years old. Briana appeared on the show because he aunt wants Briana's mother -- Daisy Gayden -- to take Briana's obesity seriously by managing what she eats but Daisy simply replied, "mind your own business".

To put this form of child abuse (freedom without common sense and a moral foundation simply leads us to other forms of slavery in my book) in proper context I have re-typed Briana's daily diet according to the Maury show:

10 am -- Briana wakes up and eats: leftovers including ribs, macaroni and cheese, and one pizza

11 am -- Briana eats "breakfast": 2 bowls of sugary cereal, 2 sausages, and 3 eggs

1 pm -- Briana has lunch: bowl of noodles and 6 cookies

3 pm -- Briana has a "snack": cheeseburgers (quantity not listed), french fries, and ice cream

4 pm -- Briana has "dunch" (my word) : large bowl of potato chips

6 pm -- Briana has dinner: 4 pieces of chicken (probably not skinless!!) with macaroni and cheese

7 pm -- Briana has "dessert": big bowl of ice cream

Late night -- if Briana wakes up "hungry" (my emphasis) she gets to eat a pizza

After typing this roster of daily feeding I have a small stomach ache but thankfully we have health care reform on the way such as the State of Massachusetts which now REQUIRES every resident to have health insurance via a system of tax incentives and penalties. Now I am not a heartless bastard that wants the government's social services storm troopers to take Briana away from Daisy but perhaps I can stir some peer pressure for the people around Daisy (no Twiggy herself) and Brianna to host an "intervention" like we do for drug addicts and alcoholics to have Briana go "clean and sober" from her diet that will surely send her to an early grave.

Having reflected on this issue I now wish I had seen the Maury show so I could have heard if Daisy's family is on food stamps -- if they are in this program it is clearly time for Congress to reform this system.

Bon appetit,

Todd

Watch More Dora

Since I am an ubersexual (as defined by Men’s Heath magazine) I am confident enough to admit it – yes I enjoy watching Dora the Explorer with my nieces! There I said it and having said it I am fully convinced that more Americans need to watch this TV program.

Dora is not only entertaining but very educational since it teaches children to explore their world using a crazy tool known as a “map.” Apparently a map is indeed a crazy concept to Americans ages 8 to 24 since a full 63% of them are unable to find Iraq on a world map despite the billions of American tax dollars be spent there – I don’t know which is a bigger waste of money – the war in Iraq or our public school system??

This survey was conducted by the National Geographic society (a special thank you to my parents for subscribing to this publication throughout my childhood) via their new five year geographic literacy campaign which is found at - http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/

Results like this simply reinforce the American stereotypes I experience in my world travels such as the stand up comedian I heard when I was living in London, UK in 2004 who posed the eternal question --

Q: Why do Americans go to war?

A: So they have a reason to find countries on a map!

Time for school choice,

Todd

Biased (against the) Media

While traveling in Austin, Texas last week I tried to post this commentary but my very poor wireless access at the Radisson Hotel dropped my connection so those initial, brilliant :-)comments were lost so here is my reconstruction attempt.

May 3, 2006 was World Press Freedom Day which was highlighted via a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which is based in New York City. CPJ’s report named the countries that are home to the “world’s most censored media”. As a great defender of the First Amendment to the US Constitution (which includes our right to lobby governments for relief) this “Hall of Shame” country list caught my attention.

TEN MOST CENSURED MEDIA MARKETS IN THE WORLD

North Korea
Burma
Turkmenistan
Equatorial Guinea
Libya
Eritrea
Cuba
Uzbekistan
Syria
Belarus

Perhaps some interesting observations based on this list:

-Four of these ten countries are former satellites of the former (thank God!!) Soviet Union

-Three of these countries are in Africa so a great topic for my friends at the Africa Resource Bank, http://www.africaresourcebank.org/ , to discuss at their annual conference

-Ted Turner was quoted on TV (Source: http://www.mrc.org/ ) as saying that when he visited North Korea he (paraphrasing here), “saw some thin people but I didn’t see any sign of abuse………” An amazing quote from the founder of the United Nations Foundation which has not done one thing to promote human rights in North Korea – if they have I am VERY happy to be corrected by any of my readers.

Buy your child a newspaper,

Todd

Austin - we have a problem

Sadly I have not posted anything for one week which is partly to blame on extensive travel over the last week but primarily due to the very poor Internet access I had at the Radisson Hotel in Austin, Texas. After spending two hours talking with six different staff people and moving to three different rooms trying to see where high speed Internet access would work I was resigned to using a low quality wireless service in the hotel lobby.

Why is this significant beyond the fact that they wasted a lot of my time and deprived my loyal readers of exciting conversation :) ? It is significant because Austin was the host city for the World Congress on Information Technology, http://www.wcit2006.org, (WCIT) for 2006 so I think my expectations for modern day Internet access were appropriate. I was discouraged to hear from the Radisson staff that they kept a list of rooms at the front desk detailing which guest rooms did not have properly functioning Internet access.

The WCIT happens every two years and the 2006 version was attended by nearly 4,000 techies, venture capitalists, etc. from around the world. Sometimes it felt like an infomercial as various tech companies CEOs gave keynote speeches but two panel discussions really stood out for me:

1.) Youth -- a panel focused on how today's "Net Generation" uses technology with the speakers ranging in age from 16 to 23. Little did I know email is considered to be very formal and out of date by today's youth.

and

2.) Health care -- a video dramatization showing a hospital situation without and then with technology tools. It was actually scary to see how out of date ("analog") today's healthcare system is in reality. My immediate thought was - "my grocery store uses bar codes on everything but (most) hospitals don't even use bar codes on patient ID tags thus relying on staff to copy records. Given my poor handwriting quality I would no doubt endanger any patients I was watching were I working in healthcare!!

Austin itself is a lovely city especially its trail system along the Town Lake where I went jogging. Since the WCIT conference dominated my time I can only offer two restaurant reviews:

1.) Louie's 106 -- an Italian restaurant on 6th Street in Austin. I had a very nice beef carpaccio and spinach salad. Overall the food was very good and the ambiance was nice but the service was lacking since management assigned my waiter to a "big party on the second floor" thus as a single diner I was overlooked. I will have to rate them with a "3" on my 5 point scale.

2.) Manuel's Downtown -- This is a Mexican restaurant on Congress Avenue near the Radisson hotel. I did not really care for the huge open space in the middle of the restaurant and it had too many "after work, loud drunks" at the table next to me but the service staff was excellent and the food was very good especially the "cactus salad" I had as a starter. This is the first time I have eaten cactus so I am now confident I would survive if I am ever stranded in a dessert. I want to give them a "4" rating but the ambiance reduces them to a "3.5".

From Austin I traveled through Atlanta on my way to think tank conference in Ottawa but that is another story since I did not make it due to some challenges at Delta Airlines but that is another posting perhaps if I care to revisit that bad customer service experience.

Happy trails,

Todd

Buy More Oil!!!

As the US Congress debates oil prices, windfall profits taxes, and energy conservation I can't help but advocate my own recommendation -- use as much oil as you can!!

Now this might sound like crazy public policy but it is built on a more solid foundation than most press releases coming out of Washington DC -- that foundation is the concept known as "scarcity". A basic economic concept that I hope you consider here because for at least since the US Oil Crisis of the 1970's we have been told the world is running out of oil yet Americans have not made any substantial gains on conserving oil or converting to alternatives so the solution I propose is to harness Economics 101 thinking by making oil truly scarce thus incentivizing inventors and investment capital into the search for alternatives. Personally I love the idea I read as a child in a "Popular Science" magazine which had a plan for automobiles made of aluminum bodies with ceramic engines thus reducing the weight of automobiles dramatically which of course would require less gasoline. Perhaps you have your own ideas you want to promote by posting a comment on this blog?

Since I don't see us using up all the world's oil anytime soon so here is an idea designed to reduce American oil consumption while benefitting taxpayers:

REQUIRE GOVERNMENTS TO SELL ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT FOR POLICE AND FIRE VEHICLES AND HAVE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

When I drive in downtown Minneapolis I often see the "City of Lakes" cars being driven by the city bureaucrats but why is this necessary? Let them utilize the city's bus systems or the precious light rail train then they can walk the rest of the way to where they need to go which will help in the "war on obesity" this nation's seems intent on waging.

The US federal government sells at least 35,000 vehicles each year via the General Services Administration (GSA - see below) so why not create a federal moratorium on government purchases/leases of vehicles? Why doesn't Congress enact such legislation versus the $100 tax rebate for oil prices recently considered?

http://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/
How many vehicles does GSA Fleet sell, and when? GSA Fleet will sell approximately 35,000 vehicles this coming year. Most vehicles will be available between April–September, when a majority of our leases expire, but we conduct sales throughout the entire year.

Time to fill my tank,

Todd

Thank You for Paddling

Several years ago a fellow lobbyist, Teresa, encourage me to read the book Thank You for Smoking which was turned into a film this year. Since I thought the book was very entertaining I was anxious to see the film so I caught a matinee today. Overall the film was true to the book as I remember it. Granted this book/film is a comedy but there was an underlying serious discussion regarding what is freedom and what is the proper role of government in our lives. Using my "1 to 5" restaurant review rating system I would give this film a "3.5" due to great lines and the tobacco lobbyist - Nick Naylor - character who was very entertaining.

My idea of freedom and escape from government intrusion is a canoe trip such as my planned September 2006 trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in Northern Minnesota. In an effort to help protect the great outdoors I am a volunteer for the Mississippi River Challenge which had an information booth at today's "Outdoor Adventure Expo" hosted by Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While promoting the River Challenge at our booth today I met the person in the booth next to ours -- Kate Williams, Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, http://www.northernforestcanoetrail.org , (NFCT) which is based in Vermont. If you live in or are traveling through New England please consider visiting the NFCT.

Until today I had never heard of the NFCT but their organization was formed in 2000 with its primary purpose the management and promotion of the "historic 740 mile waterway through New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire, and Maine..........." Mrs. Williams told me the NFCT is very similar to Minnesota's own BWCA consisting of various bodies of water connected with portages which is an ideal way to travel via canoe.

Let me close with this haiku inspired by today's Outdoor Adventure Expo:

Lake to Lake Portage
Mother Nature Welcomes Us
Silence is Golden

See you on the water,

Todd

Breadbasket of Canada

Today I returned from an overnight visit to Winnipeg, Canada for a dinner event hosted by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, http://www.fcpp.org, which is promoting free market alternatives to government in central Canada. The Frontier Centre's dinner speaker was columnist/author Christopher Hitchens. Not only was the speech very entertaining but it really pushed the envelope regarding society's assumptions about religion, personal liberties, and national security issues.

This event was held in downtown Winnipeg at the Fairmont Hotel which is but a three block walk from the "Goldeneyes" baseball stadium but beyond that the area was extremely quiet I thought. After reading the local newspapers, watching the local news coverage, and talking with my fellow dinner attendees my assessment of Winnipeg is that its economy is shackled by what one Frontier staffer called "loser's limp" -- drawing the analogy to an athlete who limps around the field/court with a minor injury which then provides them an excuse for lackluster performance. Winnipeg itself is really the capital of the breadbasket of Canada since it is farm/agribusiness country versus the Western provinces which are oil/minerals country and the Eastern provinces are manufacturing/financial country.

The taxi ride from my hotel was less than 15 minutes but I could tell that the town had seen better days. This thought was reinforced by the local TV coverage of the "City of Winnipeg's City Summit" which showed several interviews of ordinary citizens who attended the summit. Nearly everyone of them cited the need for the region to become innovative so new jobs would be created. I applaud the public policy work of the Frontier Centre which is working to overcome the "prairie populism" and welfare superstructure of the province which is the "limp" allowing people to wait for change. It is sad to note but many of the region's working age adults might be a lost cause after numerous years of socialist governments so I will encourage my Winnipeg contacts to work with programs such as Junior Achievement, http://www.ja.org, and National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, http://www.nfte.com , since no child should graduate from high school without having learned how to write a business plan.

Dreams produce jobs not government bureaucrats,

Todd

Dear Mother

Fellow Earthlings,

Now I know that April 22nd is not Mother's Day which actually falls on May 14th but I couldn't help but think that the founders of the annual Earth Day should have considered proclaiming Earth Day to coincide with Mother's Day since "Mother Earth" is clearly the most important mother in their world. Personally I love the great outdoors so I spend my time and money accordingly in ways that support private enterprise and personal liberty. Although I don't agree with the entire worldview of my " more granola-like friends" at the Mississippi River Challenge, http://www.mississippiriverchallenge.org I am an active volunteer for this organization trying to do my part to protect Mother Earth via canoeing.

My overall concern with many people in the environmental movement is their tendency to be "Gore-bots" (Al Gore robots) via their advocacy of central government planning solutions such as restrictions to combat "urban sprawl" (which is simply people choosing to move to bigger homes and lower crime areas). One such central planner that comes to mind is Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union and currently the Chairman of Green Cross International --

http://www.greencrossinternational.net/index.htm
The mission of Green Cross International is to help ensure a just, sustainable and secure future for all by fostering a value shift and cultivating a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility in humanity’s relationship with nature.


Doesn't their mission sound like a "workers' paradise" ? That is exactly the promise made by for the former (thank God!!!) Soviet Union -- "global interdependence" via the spread of Soviet Communism and now the former leader of the Soviet Union (Mr. Gorbachev) has wrapped himself in a green robe so let me encourage you to boycott all support for this organization. What is next for our world? How about current Russian President/Czar, Vladimar Putin, becoming the chairman of Amnesty International once he retires from the Russian presidency?

If you were out celebrating Earth day this past weekend take some time to reflect on this collection of quotes from a wide range of environmental activists and academics who are clearly trying to scare us into submitting to more government regulation:


http://www.pushback.com/environment/EcoFreakQuotes.html
Before 1985, mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity…in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion.
—Paul Ehrlich in (1976)

This [cooling] trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.
—Peter Gwynne, Newsweek 1976

There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production—with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food production could begin quite soon… The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologist are hard-pressed to keep up with it.
—Newsweek, April 28, (1975)

This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.
—Lowell Ponte in “The Cooling”, 1976

If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000. … This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.
—Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)

It's the end of the world and I feel fine.......................................

Todd

O-Man my Taxes are High

"Great minds discuss ideas,
average minds discuss events,
and small minds discuss other people."

Eleanor Roosevelt


Greetings from beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado where I am attending the annual Heritage Resource Bank, http://www.heritage.org, which is a conference of nearly 600 free market thinkers from around the world (45 different nations this year I think the Heritage staff announced). While I am attending this conference to complete client work I also personally love the work since I get to talk with "intellectual entrepreneurs" from around the world working to change public policies to create more personal freedom and economic growth -- I must say I feel very much at home with this community.

The Heritage Resource Bank actually ended this afternoon and was followed by the Atlas Foundation's, http://www.atlasusa.org, annual Liberty Forum which started with a dinner this evening. Sitting next to me was a young woman involved with a start-up think tank in Oman. Overall I find most US media coverage of the Middle East as lacking depth since the entire region does not get enough coverage to better educate Americans about the nations in this region. For instance, I was very interested in hearing that Oman's tax system is VERY simple as noted in these examples:

1.) Oman's corporate income taxes are capped at a FLAT rate of only 12%.

2.) Oman has NO personal income tax.

By contrast nearly 60% of Americans pay tax professionals to process their income tax which of course is a form of "secondary taxation" since we not only pay taxes all year we have to spend more money just to stay in compliance with the income police.

I have been attending this annual gathering for several years and always leave re-charged but also discouraged after hearing from the conference's speakers how much work we have left to do to overcome the nanny state we live in today.

Live free or die,

Todd

Career Number Two

Well I have delayed writing about this due to its personal nature but it is quite an accomplishment given our dynamic economy and the impact of world trade on jobs. I am proud to announce that after a 40 year career in the telecommunications industry my father retired on March 31, 2006 so my sincere congratulations to him!!! My father's pride in his work and dedication to the customer was unmatched and will no doubt be missed given my childhood memories of answering customer calls at our family home at all hours of the day/night. Enjoy your free time and canoe a lot more Dad.

Beyond celebrating someone's ability to complete a 40 year career with one company given the rarity of such an accomplishment in today's economy it is worth pausing to think about the state of telecommunications back in 1966 when my dad started in the industry. No one carried cell phones, Blackberries were not even an idea, the Internet was not the commercial enterprise it is today, and the phrase "web browser" was not in our vocabularies.

Given our ever increasing life expectancies and my dad's relative youth he is considering his options for his "second career" which might include selling home grown produce -- hopefully such a venture will bear fruit (sorry!!) so that I can promote his products on this blog in the near future.

Enjoy your work today and plan for your next career,

Todd

Call the Doggs off Barry

Now that baseball season has opened for the year the nation turns its attention to our national pastime -- drug use. Sadly, I missed my annual trip with friends to Spring Training this year but I have been unable to avoid the drug use debate.

With Giants slugger Barry Bonds under attack by the media and fans -- including one who threw a very large syringe on to the field in reference to Bonds' use of performance enhancement drugs - I really started thinking about celebrities' use of performance enhancement drugs. For Mr. Bonds in particular there is a real question whether or not there should be a footnote added to his statistics should he surpass Babe Ruth's home run hitting record. Since legend has it that the Babe drank alcohol to excess perhaps he used booze to enhance his own performance -- steady the nerves a bit for a game or just to relax -- which of course is a pretty big stretch from the alleged regular use of performance enhancers by Bonds but I hope you appreciate the point.

Now for the big leap in thinking so hold on -------------- Hopefully you have seen the Daimler-Chrysler TV ads featuring former CEO Lee Iaoccoa and musician Snoop Dogg:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/05/news/newsmakers/Iacocca_snoop/

Since Mr. Dogg has made it perfectly clear to the public that he loves smoking his marijuana/pot/mary jane/weed which apparently has enhanced his language performance given Chrysler's willingness to hire him for his laid back, smooth talking style-- which is completely unintelligible to most audiences so it makes me wonder which consumers Chrysler is targeting. I may have missed it but I don't see activists or the media digging into Mr. Dogg's drug use or calling on Chrysler to "Trade Dogg" to General Motors for some minor league players or a future draft choice ;)

The bottom line for me is call on fans to back off Barry Bonds -- boycott his games if you disapprove but look beyond Barry to have a much more comprehensive debate on the subject of drug use in America. The terrorists making money off the opium crop in Afghanistan are watching and waiting.

This is your brain on blogs,

Todd

River Walk is not Enough

As my conference in San Antonio draws to a close I plan to focus this posting on a review of the city overall via a range of topics:

RESTAURANTS:

I travel to many cities throughout the year and sadly San Antonio's restaurants stand out as "lacking" when benchmarked against other cities I have experienced. Here is the roster of restaurants I dined at this week:

Delores Del Rio -- I just wanted a simple meal of a side salad as a starter and their antipasto appetizer plate described as having "a variety of cheese, vegetables, and meats..........." Based on the English I was taught the word "variety" means "more than one" so seeing one type of meat on the plate was disappointing -- completely defeating my reason for ordering the antipasto. While the waitress was attentive she reminded me of a drug dealer since she kept pushing me to have more garlic bread ;) This restaurant sits along the famous River Walk and offers live entertainment in a nice setting but the menu is lacking so they receive a "2" rating.

Twin Sisters Bakery and Cafe - just a short walk from the St. Anthony Hotel this is a friendly, semi-loud atmosphere due to the neighborhood feel of the restaurant. Clearly people knew each other and were enjoying themselves here. The customer service was above average and my salad and soup were tasty although the plate for the salad was not appropriate since everytime my fork hit the salad pieces of lettuce and olives would fall on the table -- that is one way to lose weight. Again a "2" rating overall.

Cafe Ole' - Located along the River Walk. When I have to wait for the hostess to seat me while I watch 5 or 6 wait staff standing in the background does not help to start dining experience in a good light. Advice to restaurant managers --- cross train your employees to work as a team (see Yokunyu review below). The restaurant is known for its fajitas so I ordered the beef version which were tasty but not exceptional since the beef lacked taste and all the fat was not trimmed off which combined with the very poor table location (one less table for two which they placed right at a doorway would not hurt their revenue stream) leaves me with on a "2" rating for this restaurant.

Yukonyu Sushi - this "restaurant" has the unique honor of receiving my first ever "0" rating!!! They are located about 1/2 block from the St. Anthony Hotel but you would do yourself well if you just keep walking down Navarro Street to explore the restaurants along the River Walk. After attending Good Friday church services at a Catholic Church (their obvious idolatry reminded me why I am Lutheran!) I just wanted a light sushi meal so I started with a salmon skewer followed by green tea ice cream. Finally after waiting nearly 30 minutes (I was reading a book so I lost track of time a bit) for my ice cream I left my table to ask the host to get my bill but he informed me "I am only the host so I don't have access to the cash register......." so I had to wait for my waiter to get the bill and ultimately the restaurant manager. The waiter blamed the kitchen and I informed that manager that I planned to write a review on my blog and that he should focus on building some team work since this was "by far the worst dining experience I have had for at least a year............" Did I mention they receive a "0" rating for poor service, marginal food, and overall incompetence :) ? Downtown San Antonio has too many empty store fronts (caused by the area shopping malls my cabbie informed me) but I am afraid the Yukonyu Sushi building will be empty in the near future unless they improve.

DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO:

Per my earlier comment downtown San Antonio has numerous empty store fronts but some potential if they get organized. Perhaps it exists but if not then a "Houston Street Merchants Association" should be created to revitalize the area. They would do well to look into the "Main Street USA" program created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation for assistance. Since the River Walk area is a very short walk away Houston Street should work to create signage and perhaps even a trolley route to shuttle people to the area from River Walk. One example of revitalization needed is the renovation of the Majestic Theatre. This is a substantial landmark on Houston Street that is currently playing the "Lion King" but the store front has peeling paint - perhaps renovation plans are underway but there is no signage detailing their "master plan".

The other aspect of downtown that stands out for me is the area around the St. Anthony Hotel which includes Travis Park which apparently is a gathering spot for the city's homeless, very poor residents which coupled with the homeless gathering on the steps of the Travis Park Methodist Church across Navarro Street from the hotel leaves the area looking a bit run down especially given the garbage left behind in the park. Were I the owner of this hotel I would reach an agreement with the City of San Antonio that my employees would adopt Travis Park to clean it up daily, landscape it, etc. as a first step to improving the area but I am not confident the hotel management/ownership cares enough given their own customer service. The St. Anthony Hotel's concierge leaves at irregular hours -- 5 pm one day and 8 pm another day -- and the front desk staff is not very well trained as substitute concierges. In addition their "fitness center" should be called the "fitness closet" since the room is too small for the equipment they have packed into the space plus the staff rarely stops by to clean the room since the work out towels were always in complete disarray each day I used the gym. Your back up option is to visit the nearby "Spectrum Gym" on Travis Street but they close at 7 pm which is not very convenient if you are in town for a conference.

I have been to San Antonio several times over my career but do not need to return anytime soon. The defenders at the Alamo did not surrender but today's downtown San Antonio appears to have raised a white flag.

Ready to go home,

Todd

Asking the Wrong Question

While the USA Today newspaper ("McPaper" as my fraternity brother, T. Harvey, calls it) is a decent news source for me during my extensive travels they do not offer the depth needed for a full discussion of issues. A good example of their editorial board's failure to pose THE key question regarding the US Tax Code is their April 12, 2006 editorial -- "Who's keeping an eye on tax preparers? No one..............."

Their editorial points out that 48 out of our 50 states do not require any licensing or certification for tax preparers thus that apparently should be our biggest concern -- the need for more regulation!!!

The editorial goes on by telling us what "Percentage of taxpayers at various income levels who use paid (tax) preparers" -- which I have re-printed below:

INCOME RANGE PERCENTAGE OF TAXPAYERS

$0 to 20,000 53%
20,000 to 40,000 56%
40,001 to 60,000 57%
60,001 to 80,000 58%
80,001 to 100,000 55%
More than $100,000 64%

Now for the question the editorial board really failed to ask:

WHY SHOULD THE TAX CODE REMAIN SO BURDENSOME AND COMPLICATED THAT 53% OF PEOPLE MAKING LESS THAN $20,000 HAVE TO PAY SOMEONE TO PREPARE THEIR INCOME TAXES???

Instead why not unleash real economic growth and extend freedom by creating a flat federal income tax rate of 17% (to start with -- then we work to reduce it each year. Of course I want income tax completely eliminated since it is a violation of my personal privacy but I am willing to compromise by offering this proposal. Jesus himself only expected 10% via the "tithe" system so surely Congress can live with 17% of someone's income. ) starting at incomes of $100,000?

Come on USA Today you can do better.

Flat not fat,

Todd

Texas-sized salaries

This week I am reporting in from the home of the Alamo -- San Antonio, Texas -- where I am attending an economics conference. I had a very nice dinner at the "Houston Street Bistro" with a starter of bean soup followed by a spinich/apple/avocado salad with grilled salmon. Granted it is a Tuesday night but the restaurant options seemed very limited in this part of town but I will give this restaurant a "3" (1 to 5 scale) rating primarily due to my waiter, Bernie, who is a role model for wait staff needing to improve their skills.

Over dinner I read today's copy of the Austin American-Statesman newspaper which had an article, "Panelist: Legislators merit a raise", which focused on the relatively low pay of Texas state legislators benchmarked against the other largest states in the USA. For your own education here are what state legislators in the nation's largest states are paid annually for their service:

California - $110,880
Michigan - 79,650
New York - 79,500
Pennsylvania - 69,647
Illinois - 57,619
Ohio - 56,260
New Jersey - 49,000
Florida - 29,916
Georgia - 16,524
Texas - 7,200

SOURCE: National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legman/about/05salary.htm

So how much are state legislators paid in your state?

One of my favorite figures is that legislators in the US Virgin Islands (not one of the 10 largest states listed above) are paid $65,000 annually representing a total population of 109,000 people!!! Not a bad job while enjoying the beach life :)

While California is indeed one of the world's largest economies I really have to wonder if their state legislators really need to be compensated over 10 times more than Texas legislators especially since Texas has its own substantial economic clout. The article did not go into detail regarding what calculations the NCSL used to generate these salary figures so I have to wonder if "added salary items" such as the State of Minnesota's 1.) housing allowance for non-Twin Cities legislators and 2.) per diem expenses are included in these salary figures.

See you at the capitol,

Todd

April Showers

My hometown in Iowa is situated at the confluence of the Maple River and Odebolt Creek thus I spent several spring thaws exploring the river banks for any "treasure" exposed by the breaking ice but mostly the items were garbage of course.

Personally I love April showers begins that means the rivers and lakes will fill to their proper levels thus allowing for pursuits like canoeing and kayaking. Once again I am fortunate to be able to participate in the annual Mississippi River Challenge, http://www.mississippiriverchallenge.org , set for August 5 and 6 in the Twin Cities of Minnesota joined this year by my fraternity brother Pete as my paddling partner. The Challenge is a charity fundraiser for the Friends of the Mississippi River to help them raise funds for their education and environmental protection work.

As I look forward to this two day paddle I am FINALLY thanking those friends that supported me with donations in 2005 since each paddler in the challenge is expected to raise $200 in contributions. Let me recognize those friends today:

Steve G.
Karen B.
Cecily S.
Tim H.
Steve K.
Mark P.

A token of my appreciation and a reminder of Old Man River is on its way to you this week. My sincere thanks for supporting this effort to clean and preserve our 22 mile stretch of the Mississippi here in the Twin Cities.

Everything flows downstream,

Todd

My life is too busy

During my morning routine of reading the newspaper while biking in my gym I was listening to CNN which had a story focused on how busy people are today and their use of electronic tools such as Blackberries, email, and voice mail. One person interviewed stated that she is constantly "spread too thin........"

Yet me be honest by admitting that I multi-task and over-program with the rest of the tax slaves in the USA but I try to balance that with exercise, some quiet reading time, and massages (see my posting - "Dr. Plato will see you now"). This CNN story reminded me of a clipping I had in my "Blog Items" file (yes, I am a dork with such a file but it is no different than files maintained by traditional writers) focused on the Long Now Foundation (LNF):

http://www.longnow.org

The LNF's main focus is society lack of "long-term perspective" thus one of their project's is the creation of the "10,000 Year Clock" which was first built in the year, 01997. So if you want a sense of a slower-paced, long-term view life spend some time reading about their work.

Personally their "Rosetta Project", http://www.rosettaproject.org/, intrigues me the most. This project seems to archive the world's languages with their current count at 3,000 known languages.

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow,

Todd

Dr. Plato will see you now

"The great error of our day in the treatment of humans is that some physicians separate treatment of psyche from treatment of body" Plato

One of my favorite Saturday Night Live characters is Steve Martin's "medieval Barber" where nearly every medical solution he offers to his patients (victims?) is a blood letting regardless of their medical condition.

Personally I am blessed with good health in that I have never had a sick day from work in 17 years now which I attribute primarily to an active lifestyle, the regular use of the steam room at my gyms, avoiding medicines as the immediate solution, and occasional visits to a spa for a massage. This is my "holistic" approach to medicine thus I am very encouraged by the growing availability/flexibility of Health Savings Accounts (for more information -- http://www.ncpa.org) since it empowers consumers/patients to spend health care dollars in the way they want.

Hopefully HSA will completely restructure the "pay and pray you get something back" medical insurance system we have created in the USA. For instance, instead of some prescription drug I want my personal doctor to prescribe a few full body massages for a few weeks perhaps coupled with some one-to-one yoga instruction to counter cold/flu symptoms I might be experiencing but today's insurance claim system does not cover such "prescriptions" .

I thought about the need for reforming our current "trade guild" medical profession after reading about this TV program focused on alternative medicine options such as -- herbs, acupuncture, meditation:

http://thenewmedicine.org/timeline

Empower yourself the next time you see your doctor by asking him/her to prescribe a massage or some aromatherapy treatments for you then let me know what their response is -- always trying to educate myself.

Pura vida,

Todd

Hawkeye State

While traveling in Philadelphia this past weekend I saw an ad for this new film:

IOWA - THEY DON'T JUST GROW CORN HERE ANYMORE
http://www.iowathefilm.com

To be completely factual my home state of Iowa also raises substantial amounts of soy beans and hogs but that would probably make the film's tag line a bit too long ;)

Since this was the first time I had heard or read about this film it caught my attention so after reviewing its website I discovered that it is focused on the production of "meth" which is reportedly a booming industry in Iowa. I love my home state so I am greatly concerned about the current state of affairs and the outside world's perception of Iowans generated by this film's release.

Regardless of how this film portrays drug use I am still opposed to living in - and paying for - the police state created by the "War on Drugs" . Additionally, I am very tired of hearing journalists and politicians constantly asking President Bush when he plans to withdraw troops from Iraq so let me generate a new line of questioning -- "Mr. President, when do you plan to withdraw the troops/police from the War on Drugs?" Perhaps some of the thousands of police officers and narcotics agents involved in the drug war could be retrained and re-deployed to Iraq to help that country create the police structure it needs to establish law and order.

Unless we plan to create a 100% income tax bracket we need government to completely rethink how they spend our tax dollars today.

DARE to think anew,

Todd

Don't Tell Me We Don't Have Any Money!!

Despite our high tax culture in my adopted State of Minnesota I have several Minnesotan things that keep me happy such as canoeing in the Boundary Waters (http://www.ely.org) and listening to the "Garage Logic" talk radio program -- http://www.am1500.com/garagelogic.htm

Garage Logic is a world view, a philosophy that I sum up as -- "life is not so complicated that we need a government program for every 'crisis' , instead we just need to sit in our garages enjoying a cold beer while talking with friends to solve problems using our common sense............." One of my favorite jingles on this show is when a choir sings, "Don't tell me we don't have any money.............."

I was reminded of this jingle on Monday when I was lifting weights at my local gym. While I was stretching two women in their late forties/early fifties were talking about the one woman's interest in some part-time work in local schools. This led to a discussion of their mutual friend's current job in some local school district serving as the CULTURAL LIAISON.

At the risk of sounding like an old, grumpy man talking about things in a "back in my day we never........." mindset but here it is true. Granted my school was not at all diverse in terms of new immigrants, languages spoken, etc. so we clearly did not need a "Cultural Liaison" but at the risk of sounding cold-hearted and ignorant let me call for the replacement of all "Cultural Liaisons" in our nation's schools with a very crazy idea -- more math and science teachers!!!

Math and science are built on a foundation of universal and eternal concepts -- created by God or simply the cosmic order of things depending on your own belief system -- I will pray for you regardless ;) -- that are not dependent on changing cultures. I have to believe that having more math and science teaching positions created will generate more economic growth for the US economy than cultural liaisons will generate.

In fact given the constant drum beat about the need to "reduce class size" why can't we completely re-think and re-tool the way classes are taught. Looking at my university experience it is clear to me that classes can be taught effectively using varying class sizes. For instance -- why don't we create high school math courses that only have 15 students per class while a course like literature could be taught with 30 or 35 students based on a format focused on reading books and writing about them perhaps using a book club format of small student work groups within each class.

No I don't have the perfect solution but my options are better than the thinking offered by the current education establishment which simply says -- "give us more money so we can reduce class size and everything will improve..............." We have thrown enough money into this money pit called public education so some new thinking would be refreshing.

More teachers less liaisons please,

Todd

I was wrong, please forgive me!!!!!!!

Perhaps it is my growing sense of my own mortality or Catholic school guilt (wait, I am Lutheran and went to public school!) but after some deep, soul-searching reflection I now admit that my personal, life-long crusade for greater freedom and less government has been completely mis-guided and mean-spirited. I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG AND SELFISH!!

Government is good for all of us and simply needs more of our money so it can do more good things for more people so I am now willing to accept a 100% income tax bracket thus fully releasing myself from all personal decisions to allow myself to fully embrace a cradle to grave welfare state. Ah, my stress level has flat-lined now that I have entered this utopian mental state.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY MY BIG GOVERNMENT FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can have my freedom when you rip it from my cold, dead hands :-)

Reduce government not liberty,

Todd

It's the Media, Stupid!!

I have returned to Philadelphia after nearly four full days of meetings in Washington DC. One night of my DC visit was devoted to the "Media Research Center's Gala - featuring the Dis Honors Awards" at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

This annual event is the Media Research Center's (MRC), http://www.mrc.org, version of the "Razzies" (given to the worst films of the year) with the "Dis Honors" awards focused highlighting those members of the media establishment most deserving of ridicule for their bias, ignorance, and general opposition to freedom (my own summary - please visit MRC's website for their own explanation).

So this year's "winners" are as follows:

"Slam Uncle Sam Award" -- Chris Matthews, MSNBC's Hardball program

"Send Bush to Abu Ghraib Award" -- Jack Cafferty, CNN's The Situation Room program

"Cindy Sheehan Media Hero Award" -- Chris Matthews, MSNBC's Hardball program

"Aaron Brown Memorial Award for Stupidest Analysis" -- Ted Turner, former CNN founder who sold out to AOL/Time Warner and lost most of his fortune except for what he donated to create the United Nations Foundation. Now that I think about it the AOL/Time Warner stock is still worth more than the investment in the UN's "work"

"I'm not a Political Genius but I play one on TV Award" -- Rosie O'Donnell. PLEASE, PLEASE run for public office to provide new content for Comedy Central!!!

Overall this was a very entertaining evening especially since I did not see the video clips of these "winners'" comments when they originally aired since I travel too much so I greatly appreciated seeing Ted Turner's comments about North Korea where he said in response to Wolf Blitzer's question about starvation in this Worker's Paradise that Ted had, "......seen thin people riding bikes but I did not see any evidence they were being abused.............." (something to that effect -- truly an amazing moment especially since in late January Turner's own CNN ran a feature on "CNN Presents" showing video smuggled out of North Korea showing first hand, mass starvation and public executions.

Let me close with this disturbing quote from the highly discredited Dan Rather (thanks to the bloggers at Powerline!!) -- "CBS is a magical, mystical kingdom of journalistic knights" Dan Rather -- thanks to my friend/fellow blogger, Stacey, for writing the quote down for me. I will have to add Stacey to the Space Beagle staff :)

Turn off your TV and read a book,

Todd