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